alharvey – American History to 1877

April 28, 2014

Reconstruction/ memory

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In Chapter 15 of Inhuman Bondage, Davis discusses the ultimate events of the civil war and what they meant, and also what the entire war itself meant for the Union, the Confederacy, and the United Sates as a whole. He talks about how “the Civil War was an apocalyptic success in the sense that it brought an end to nearly a century of struggle and broken hopes regarding the ultimate extinction of African America Slavery” (Davis 299). As well as the success, the war also represented a major conflict in America; it showed the weakness and inefficiency of the American political and economic system. It showed that the nation had to go through war and hardship, causing many deaths of soldiers and civilians on both sides, in order to come to a resolution. After the war, the US had to reconstruct its economic system due to the freeing of all the slaves and necessity for more jobs and positions to be filled.

Obviously everything wasn’t completely fixed after the war; the southern slave owners deeply feared that their former slaves would retaliate viciously. The reconstruction of The United States depended on the North establishing compatibility with the South again to make decisions as one nation, especially those decisions regarding race issues.

As Emily mentions in her blog post, this war was the most devastating war in American history, yet its hard to think it wasn’t necessary. This is quite the staggering question; was a war this devastating necessary to force an end to slavery and the conflicts between the North and the South? Especially in such a young nation, growing and changing so rapidly that it was still finding its identity. In my opinion, that is the most devastating part of the war, that such a tragic war was necessary in the continuance of a young nation.

This reading was very interesting in that it covered the aspects of each side’s reactions to the war, and how that would affect the near and distant future of the nation. I liked the way Davis represented the importance of America’s reconstruction, and how, even after the war was over, it was still very crucial that the North and South come together as one nation again.

April 23, 2014

The Civil War, Part I

A large factor leading up to the Civil War that Wilentz discusses in the reading is the panic of 1857. This panic occurred due to the combination of vast construction and industrial development that was funded by foreign investors, sudden sell-off of American securities caused by rising interest rates, and the the expectations of western lands. All of these factors lead to a bank panic where deposits were withdrawn, loans called in, and businesses went under, causing a depression that demanded a different solution because than that of 1837.

This depression demanded a different solution because of the spike in population during the 40’s because of immigrants who filled in the labor-intensive jobs in large cities. Now that immigrants made up a large portion of the working class, it was harder for current American citizens to find jobs. This labor reform spreading throughout the North was headed by George Henry Evans, who basically said that a wage slave would be free if he could own a portion of land. The slogan “Vote Yourself A Farm!” encouraged movement out west where there was more available land than in the highly populated cities on the East coast. These reformations represented the foundation for an America of free and independent labor.

As Emma talks about in her blog post, the North and the South each had their opinions that their way of life and production was better, but the growing idea that free and independent labor was the way to go pressured the South even more. This pressure simply added to the other factors to make the South secede.

This was again a very interesting reading, where Wilentz described the economic aspects that had a big impact on the nation’s future, in combination with several other factors, and could link it to the North vs the South leading up to the Civil War.

April 16, 2014

Growing Disunion

In Chapter 21 of The Rise of American Democracy, Wilentz discusses the disputes in the US over the admission and control of western territories (California, Texas, New Mexico) largely in regards to slavery. The disputes can be summed up into North vs. South. When President Taylor presented his plan for admitting California, and soon after New Mexico, many southerners further projected thoughts of secession from the Union. Henry Clay then stepped in to quiet the outraged southerners with his set of resolutions: admission of California and the rest of Mexico’s given up land with no restrictions on the subject of slavery, the next basically preventing a pro-slave state coming out of Texas, another attempting to resolve the fight over slavery in DC by proposing the abolition of slave trade, not slavery itself in DC, and lastly denying congressional authority over the interstate slave trade with more strict federal laws in the recovery of fugitive slaves to offset the personal liberty laws put in action by the north. Reasonably, the resolutions did favor the South slightly, and I say reasonably because if they didn’t, then the South would have no reason to comply.

Later, the conclusion was reached, disregarding which deal was chosen, that if California was admitted into the Union as a free state, the southern states would be under the power of the north. Because of the many compromises and of new land by the North, the South was drastically falling behind in how much control it had in the future of the nation. In Thomas’ post, he talks about the effects of the Compromise of 1850 and also the controversy caused by the Fugitive slave law. Basically the compromise of 1850 was a delay because at the rate that the North and South were dividing and playing against each other in controlling new land out west and fighting for or against slavery, the Union was bound to separate. The North had begun taking any advantage it had over the south to remain in control, and the South, in response to that, began talk about seceding to use as leverage for many pro-slavery laws. Thus, leading to the Civil war in the near future.

Overall it was a very interesting reading; I enjoyed Wilentz’s depiction of both sides of the arguments made by the North and the South. It really gave me a grasp of the larger picture of what was going on at the time.

February 19, 2014

Breaking with Britain

Between 1760 and 1820, there were many changes that occurred in Europe and United States in terms of land ownership, conflict between peoples, and, most importantly, slave trade. After the American Revolution, the United states was able to further expand because of its freedom from Britain. Also, the allies of the US gained back land that they had previously lost to Britain before the war when the colonies were rapidly expanding. Many other countries and their respective colonies broke out into civil war and revolutions, resulting in massive reformation in North America and Europe. The French Revolution occurring shortly after the American Revolution as well as the Latin American wars of Independence continued the conflict among these European nations, and then led to many different treaties being made to monitor slave trade among each of the different countries. After these revolutions, slavery rapidly expanded, but by 1825, the US and Britain outlawed their Atlantic slave trade and had made treaties with other countries such as France, Holland, Spain, and Portugal that made the only legal slave trade be South of the Equator, in transportation of slaves to Brazil. Needless to say there were many illegal trade routes still going on and flourished for years.

As Thomas points out in his post, the division in the US was only made worse by this continuing of slave trade. The North had limited its use of slaves where as the South only relied on it more for production and making a profit, causing an even bigger divide in the newly found nation.

Davis really covers a lot of boundaries in this reading; he does not only focus on one revolution, one certain area and what happened but the broad spectrum of events that occur simultaneously and how slavery and slave trade was affected throughout all of these processes. He also incorporates the many cause and effect scenarios that led to the redistribution of land to all of the countries involved in the many revolutions because of alliances and treaties made.

February 16, 2014

Imperial Wars and Crisis

In Chapter 18, Taylor shows how the colonies went from being completely a part of the British Empire that was used to further expand it and conquer new land to becoming their own people who would make decisions according to their own interests rather than for the crown. Taylor describes the cause of the colonies’ wanting separation from the crown to be the colonial elite finding a new confidence and ability to challenge the crown. They found this new confidence after the seven years war when the British nearly suffocated the colonists by constricting the trade laws and taxes which drastically negatively changed the colonists’ way of life. Finally, many of them felt it necessary to challenge the crown in order to resume life the way they wanted to, and not according to how the British wanted.

The British were forced to impose these new, harsher policies onto the colonials because it was the only way to keep up in the race against the French and Spanish in North America and to keep control over the indians. However, there is no avoiding the inevitable; the British imposed these new policies to have more control over the colonies, but all they did was bring the colonials together against tyranny and attempt to rebel in order to return to their favored way of life. Olivia makes a great point in her post about how Britain lacked a middle class, causing there to be no opportunity for improvement of way of living for the poor people in Britain, where as, in America, the people previously in indentured servitude, the new settlers, etc. were able to acquire land, some becoming very rich and others becoming middle class. This allowed the American Economy to be more stable with more opportunities for the American people to become more wealthy and improve their way of living. This discovery of a unique economy gave the colonists the confidence to step up against the crown.

Reading this chapter, I enjoyed seeing the different aspects of war, economic aspects, and social aspects that lead up to american colonists believing in their own independence. It is an idea of great importance to think about because had this not happened, things would not be the same for the American people. We may not have gained our independence or even just have been taken over by another empire such as the french. Thinking about all of these events that all had to come together to lead to American Independence is what makes this reading so interesting and much easier to read.

February 12, 2014

Religion

The first essay, “Witchcraft in the Anglo-American Colonies”, Norton introduces the idea that there are many different views of witchcraft and so many different contexts it is seen in. From different movies, TV shows, and books, the depiction of Witches has been changed so much since Colonial America when the series of witch trials occurred. One of the main causes of these so many varied depictions is many of the records and warrants of these trials was based on gossip and were not written down since many of the population were not fully literate. Newspapers were also much less prevalent so news traveled solely through the storytelling people did from town to town. This unclearness of what happened to cause these trials, how these occurrences happened, and the reasons they happened are all very general and vague, and, in some instances, very flawed. Most accusations were based on a person’s misfortune from weather, illness, etc. and then a neighbor of theirs happened to do something to make them believe it was the neighbors doing somehow.

Mike makes a solid point in his post that education definitely had an impact on how these trials started. People did not logically think about the cause and effect of each situation; if they got sick, which was very common since they were not in the best living conditions, or if there was a bad storm, they did not attribute it to dirty living conditions or a storm simply moving through, but their neighbor who they disliked for some reason and wanted to have the last word.

Norton does a good job of accurately describing how people view and think about these witch trials, as well as describing some of the major causes of the sudden rises in accusations of witchcraft. I enjoyed these reading especially because, from the beginning, it could be related to the present day to things I have actually experienced.

February 10, 2014

British Colonies Coalesce

Taylor starts off by describing the background and beginnings of the unstable power taken by the wealthy, local land owners, called the “southern elites”. Because of this, and the fact that tobacco prices were dropping and land was becoming scarce, people were more power hungry and desperate to keep their power than ever. This instability of social power was due to the prevalence of single men in society; social power was based on whether you were married, how much land you had, how many dependents you had (i.e wife, kids, servants, etc.). These components for measuring power added up to what were called “little commonwealths”, which were the foundation of a stable society, but, since the ratio of men to women was so skewed, it was impossible for society to build such a stable foundation.

Beth made a great point in her post that, although there was social tensions among the colonists in their society, they could ultimately unite against another society: the indians attacking their frontier. Since land was becoming scarce, more colonists had to move to the frontier to find more available land, and this obviously did not sit well with the Indians. Expanding their frontier meant moving further and further into the natives’ land, causing more disturbances to start more conflicts among the inhabitants. After more of these conflicts occurred, colonists living on the frontier expected more support from their local governments so as to prevent more Indian attacks on their farmland. Eventually the colonists were not satisfied and rebellions began, creating many new problems for the English crown and the local governments.

Taylor definitely puts his own spin on retelling history to make a point and show his own opinions. After a certain point it is unproductive for him to input his own opinions and feelings into the readings because it can skew and distort what really happened, which would defeat the purpose of writing history in the first place. However, this can be good to a certain extent; it is good in that he can incorporate emotion and feeling into the presentation to absorb the reader more than just talking about history. This keeps the reading interesting, and more effective in showing the reader a more clear picture of the history being told.