emness – American History to 1877

April 30, 2014

Changes to the Original

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The movie C.S.A.: The Confederate States of America portrays America with the same basic historical timeline as the one we know today but with many historical changes. As Max points out, this film was meant to be a more humorous take on the Confederacy, but it also shows the racism existing in the South during and after the war. The movie takes the stereotypical racist South to the extreme, having all of the subsequent decisions of the United States as exclusive and racist.

The most surprising changes in well-known historical events were the Great Depression and World War II. When the stock market crashed in 1929, according to the Confederate States of America, in order to get out of the depression the Confederate States revived the Trans-Atlantic slave trade. The Trans-Atlantic slave trade legally ended in the early nineteenth century in the United States, and it is surprising that in this fictitious racist country, the Confederate States decide to reopen this trade. The opening of the slave trade is followed by the start of Hitler’s reign in Germany and the beginning of World War II. In this alternate history, the Confederate States of America do not intervene in the war with Germany but instead begin a war with Japan. The Confederate States generally agree with Germany’s plan, but believe that the Japanese are weak due to their small structure. On December 7, 1941, the day we know for the attacks on Pearl Harbor, the Confederate States attack Japan. Both of these events are surprising changes based on the racism of the Confederate States.

The Confederate States of America portrays a different America than what we know but with the same historical events. Although we will never know if America would have been like what is shown if the Confederacy won, this movie shows the extreme of what could have been. I don’t completely agree with this extreme view because I think that even if the Confederacy had won, slavery would have been eradicated eventually based on the economy or a slave uprising. But the movie provides a historical take on what could have been if the Union failed to win the war.

April 27, 2014

A Bloody War

In the last chapter of Inhuman Bondage, Davis discusses the Civil War and the process of emancipation. Throughout the chapter, he talks in detail about the social and political battles during the war, and the feelings and emotions of each side as the war continued. Although I already knew that the American Civil War was the bloodiest American war to date, I did not fully realize the extent of this statement. Davis brings up the question, “Why was it that a democratic nation that prided itself on rational moderation, peace, common sense, expediency, and compromise became the scene of the world’s first “modern” war, pursued by the North until its armies achieved unconditional victory, totally crushing the South?” (page 300). Both sides of the war lost so many men, with the number of casualties over 600,000. Disease contributed heavily to these numbers, as they were overcrowded and had poor sanitation. Execution of prisoners of war was a surprising contributor to the death toll. I did not realized that both sides killed prisoners of war, like at Fort Pillow when the Confederate government massacred all of the black Union soldiers. Events like this show the deep-seated hatred on both sides of the war, and how either side was willing to take the next step in order to win.

Davis further discusses this idea of doing anything to win when he addresses how both sides expanded government power during the war. Both sides installed a draft to increase their army’s numbers, and the Union also started issuing bonds, printed more money, and started taxing income.

We see the Civil War today as the war that freed the slaves, an almost necessary evil that killed hundreds of thousands but ended the system of slavery. Davis highlights how this war devastated the country through the hundreds of thousands of deaths and the devastation of the land and plantations in the South. Although we will never know if slavery would have or could have ended without a war, the American Civil War still stands to be the bloodiest event in American history. The last few sentences of this chapter and book wrap up the Civil War by reminding us that the Civil War is our past, and that sometimes if takes a struggle to have greater equality and justice in the world.

April 23, 2014

The Untold Stories

In chapters 23 to 25 of The Rise of American Democracy, Wilentz continues to provide the somewhat unknown side of American history leading up to the Civil War. Although I sometimes find Wilentz to be a very dense writer, I like his introductions to important events in the United States history that go unspoken in earlier history classes.

The Dred Scott v. Sanford is an important Supreme Court case that is always mentioned when learning about the Civil War, but Wilentz takes the case into detail, showing how the case inflamed party and geographical lines. While I knew that the Dred Scott case was an important event in the lead-up to the Civil War, I did not know how it called into question the Missouri Compromise or President Buchanan’s role in the case.

Wilentz’s discussion of John Brown in chapter 24 is another event I did not realize had as large as an impact during this time before reading this chapter. As Kurt talks about in his blog post, this event is not commonly discussed at length while study before the Civil War, although having now read this chapter, I believe that Brown’s raid is a crucial part of American history. John Brown attempted to rally slaves to arm them to fight against slaveholders in Harper’s Ferry. Although unsuccessful and later charged with treason, Brown realized the need for a violent resurrection in order to free the slaves. The violence of Harper’s Ferry shocked the country, sending the South into defensive mode to protect against more abolitionist fights but empowering northern abolitionists who believed he had the right intentions but the wrong way of going about abolitionism.

Wilentz’s detailed discussion of these two events gave a deeper insight into the time period before the start of the Civil War. I hope that Wilentz continues to write about the surrounding details of important events in United States history as he moves into the Civil War.

April 16, 2014

The Path Towards War

In chapter 21 and chapter 22 of The Rise of American Democracy, Wilentz describes the political events leading up to the American Civil War. Like the blog posts written by my classmates, Wilentz focuses on the almost unwritten part of American history leading up to the war that I had not heard of before these chapters. Instead of focusing on the battles and major events leading up to the Civil War that we learn in American history classes, Wilentz discusses the territorial and political battles in Congress that separated pro-Slavery southerners from anti-Slavery northerners.

The warrant for William and Ellen Craft was an especially interesting event that I had never heard of before. Acting under the Fugitive Slave Law, two slave catchers traveled to Boston to catch and return William and Ellen Craft, but when Boston abolitionists heard of their journey, they helped the couple hid and escape to Great Britain. The abolitionist’s actions enraged southern slave-owners and President Fillmore, but it also shows the dividing factor between the two sides. The Fugitive Slave Law, which was put into place as part of a compromise, did not feel like a compromise to Northern abolitionists. This example shows the ever-progressing tensions between the two factions of American people.

Wilentz continues this trend into the following chapter, accurately titled The Truce Collapses. Continuing with the theme of the collapse of the Union into the Civil War, Wilentz ends this chapter by introducing the Dred Scott Supreme Court case, which is a major catalyst of the beginning of the Civil War.

February 19, 2014

The Paradox of the Revolutionary War

Both in chapter 7 of Inhuman Bondage by Davidson Brion Davis and chapter 1 of The Rise of American Democracy by Sean Wilentz, the authors outlined the struggle and strife in the colonies during the Revolutionary War. Calling out for freedom, British colonists fought for freedom under the oppressive British rule and started forming democratic ideas for the future. As Wilentz describes in his chapter, it was not an easy transition from a split social system to equal democracy for all.

During the Revolutionary War when colonists cried for liberty from England, and while yeomen, artisans, and elites were struggling to find a balance in democracy, slaves were watching and observing these political movements. Learning from the people who were subjugating them to slavery, African Americans learned to fight for their own freedom and liberty. The paradoxical nature of this time period puts into motion the ideas that would lead to the Civil War. Many of the freed colonists realized contradiction of keeping slaves, especially after they too had just fought for their own freedom. Davis’ story about the slave named Prince was the perfect example of this paradox. Having served under George Washington during the Revolutionary War, Prince told his master that it was unfair that the colonists could go to war for their liberty but Prince and other slaves did not have any liberties.

Like Mike talks about in his blog post titled, “Democracy and Slavery,” Davis points out that the United States were too weak to be able to abolish slavery without the destruction of the Union. The South was economically dependent on the use of slaves in fields, and slavery was such a big issue that if the United States were to abolish it at this point in history, the Union might not have formed. Although slavery would last for a few more decades, the Revolutionary War and its aftermath acted as a catalyst for the war by showing the inconsistency in the ideas of the American people.

February 17, 2014

A Shift in the Colonies

In this chapter, Taylor describes the conflicts and wars that take over North America during the early 1700s, and how these wars shaped the colonies into pre-Revolutionary War America. Taylor does not focus much on the actual battles of the Seven Years War, but instead focuses on the social, political, and economic consequences and outcomes started by the war.

Due to these conflicts between the British and the French, relations with Native Americans shift in North America. British colonies were rapidly growing, as Taylor points out in 1754 there were over one million British colonists compared to the seventy thousand French colonists (426). This shift in size caused the French to value its relationship with Native Americans, as they were a vital contributor to victory in war. Although Indians wanted to play both the British and the French to maximize utility and to seek the lowest prices, the French were much more cordial and appreciative than the growing British. While British and Native American relations have never been stable, this war exacerbated the situation by making French and Indian relations stronger. The only redeeming factor the British had, Taylor points out, were their plentiful goods at lower prices (428). Despite the Natives favoring the appreciative French over the British, we can see that the British are becoming a powerhouse in North America.

The most interesting outcome the Seven Years War was the changes in the relationship between the colonies and Britain. As the colonies grew and expanded both on the land and by numbers, the British monarchy decided to reign in the leaders of the colonies and place more restrictions and taxes on the colonists. Taylor points out that the victory in the Seven Years War led the British to rethink its empire and change it to the country’s benefit, but also gave the colonists a sense of entitlement and power because they were the ones to fight in and win the war. The conflicting attitudes led to colonist’s revolting and the Revolutionary War.

In his blog post titled “Colonial Origins of the American Dream,” Max discusses this change in colonist’s mind-set towards their homeland led to the beginning of the American Dream. The American Dream, known to many as an American’s ability to work hard to achieve goals, is often thought of being an American idea after the Revolutionary War when Americans were independent from the British. The resistant attitude and their willingness to fight the homeland to achieve the end goal of freedom show that the colonists were already starting to work towards this American Dream.

This time in pre-Revolutionary War America proved to be a defining period in American history. British colonies changed as they fought against the French in the Seven Years War, started to alienate Native Americans, and developed a defiant attitude towards Britain. Taylor portrays these changing events and feelings well through this chapter on imperial wars.

February 12, 2014

Witch Craft and Religion

In Taylor’s chapter about religion and the colonies, he describes the religious revival that took place during this time period. When first learning American history when I was younger, I was taught that Europeans came over for religious freedom, far away from the Church of England and the monarchy. Taylor points out this misconception in the beginning of his chapter, as it was only some colonists that wanted religious freedom. Many colonists observed their respective religions and attended church on a weekly basis. Especially in New England, which as Taylor says, “struck visitors as the most conspicuously devout and religious homogenous region in British North America” (340). The readings on the Salem Witch Trials also capitalize on this highly religious area in the colonies, as well as also dispel myths about these trials.

Like the idea about religious freedom, from a young age I was taught that the Salem Witch Trials persecuted women for being involved with the devil and witchcraft. But like most people, one always asks, how were they persecuted and why were they persecuted? As Elizabeth Reis talks about these frequently asks questions. It was interesting to see the differences between how men and women were treated in this Puritan area. Women were most often persecuted as witches due to their confession, because they were most likely to confess to sinning and being in a covenant with the devil, whereas men would brush off their sins as things that can be changed later.

In his blog post, Mike discusses the Salem Witch trials and the gender roles associated with them. Mike points out how women have always been a social stigma that women are weak, and men were considered strong due to their ability to get rid of the devil. This point is extremely interesting to me, as I never though about the witch trials being a gender divided event.

February 10, 2014

Power Tensions in the Chesapeake Colony

In his chapter about the Chesapeake colonies, Taylor outlines the social classes and power struggles, as well as the developing slave nation that would shape the rest of American history. These power rankings emerged from labor classes. Taylor describes that in England, power rankings were based on aristocracy and education, whereas in the colonies competitive middle-class men were on top of the social ladder (139). Underneath these middle-class men were indentured servants, who labored until they had paid off their dues.

I thought was most interesting about the reading was how the colonies changed from tensions between English colonists to tensions between English colonists and slaves. Bacon’s Rebellion exemplifies the strained relationship between English laborers and the elites, when a disgruntled colonist attacked the Virginia Governor, Governor Berkeley. Although this event did not lead to major changes in the colony, it showed the tensions between these two groups. But there was a lower supply for indentured servants, as well as no longer economically beneficial, so slaves started to become more common in the colonies. Along with the rising slave trade, the developing racism in the colonies created new power rankings. It was no longer elite versus laborer; it was English colonist versus slave.

As Charlotte says in her post, color of one’s skin became a major marker in identity, which led to unity between the colonists based on this common identifier. I agree with Charlotte that Taylor’s description of this process of “othering” is more complicated than what Taylor makes it out to be. Taylor described in detail the punishments against slaves if they were to step out of line, but he did not describe the more elitist attitude that white colonist had during this time. I think Taylor could have expanded more on this, as it creates an important distinction that leads to important events concerning the Civil War and the Reconstruction.