Category: Public (Page 5 of 8)

By Alec

By Kurt Vidmer

Throughout the nineteenth century in the United States, the idea of space and time began to change with the innovation of transportation systems. The new transportation systems consisted of increased canal construction, better maintained stage roads, and most importantly railroad expansion. With these innovations in transportation systems, it because much more accessible and efficient for American citizens to travel across the country. Due to the increased accessibility of resources enabling travel, the idea of “space” and “place” began to form a new definition, as various regions became much more open to the country.

As we read in class, Withers describes Tuan’s idea of “space” and “place” as “space as an arena for action and movement, place as about stopping, resting, becoming, and be- coming involved”[3]. When analyzing the impact of the advancements in transportation technology in the nineteenth century, we can see these advancements had great impact on both “space” and “place”. However, these increases in transportation opportunities and efficiency not only allowed for farther exploration and settlement, but also played a large role in the advancement of information exchange throughout this time period.

My first primary source demonstrates how the railroad enabled people to travel across a much more vast array of places, and how this availability increased the opportunity for information exchange throughout this time period. This source is a page from a scrapbook of railroad tickets that belonged to Jeptha H. Wade. This scrapbook was taken directly from the “Jeptha H. Wade Family Papers”, which consist of letters, scrapbooks, and memorabilia from the life of Jeptha H. Wade.

Jeptha H. Wade himself played a large role in the increase in information technology during the mid-nineteenth century, as he was a leading industrialist for the formation of telegraphs[1]. Living most of his life in Michigan and Ohio, Wade was at the center of the expansion movement. As he worked his way into the telegraph business, he formed the Cleveland and Cincinnati Telegraph Company in 1849. This Company became famous when they successfully implemented a telegraph line connecting to these two main cities, a line that would later be expanded to reach other large cities in the Midwest.

The ticket page in the scrapbook that I chose consists of tickets from four different cities in the year 1867. The cities included are Cleveland, Cincinnati, Columbus, and Milwaukee. This particular page stands out to me for two main reasons. First, it is very indicative of Jeptha H. Wade’s geographic location where his company was based out of and his initial work was done. Also, it allows us to assume that these train ticket were from him commuting to and from his offices in Cleveland, Columbus, and Cincinnati. The second reason this page sticks out to me is because it also displays western railroad expansion in the mid-nineteenth century. Seeing that Wade was traveling to Wisconsin in 1867 leads us to assume that this was in an effort to further expand his telegraph lines west. This paints a very clear picture of the effort that was being taken to expand westward during this period.

The Milwaukee ticket also lines up with another of my primary source documents, which is a map of American Railroads, Canals, and Stage Roads from the year 1846 [2]. In this map, Milwaukee is at the very western edge of the where railroads were accessible to American travelers. Although the Jeptha H. Wade’s Milwaukee ticket is over twenty years older than this map, it makes sense that it was a necessity for the railroad expansion to a city to precede the precede the telegraph expansion to a city. With all of the required equipment, workers, and planning needed to install a telegraph line; I believe it is safe to assume that an efficient and functional railroad was required to undertake such a process.

As the ticket collection continues, there gradually is an increase in the how far west the ticket go. Some examples of documented western travels include tickets from both Minneapolis and Arkansas. This serves as a great example of how the railroads opened the country up far more for travelers.

Jeptha H. Wade’s collection of railroad tickets allow us to see first hand the changing in “space” and “place” in the mid-nineteenth century America. Not only did the railroads make it more accessible for people to travel farther differences, it also enabled information exchange to expand to these given reasons. Because of the advancements in transportation opportunities, Jeptha H. Wade was able to successfully install telegraph lines to open up communication to these new regions. The availability of efficient communication to a region enables the region to transition from a “space” to a “place”. The railroads enable the region to become Tuan’s definition of a space, and communication, such as telegraphs enable the space to become Tuan’s definition of a place.

Bibliography

[1] Jeptha Homer Wade Family Papers, 1856-1890, Western Reserve Historical Society, Cleveland, Ohio

By Avery

My final project will look at the founding of Davidson College through the lens of the Concord Presbytery. The Synod of the Carolinas, itself newly instated, founded the Concord Presbytery in 1795. The Concord Presbytery’s jurisdiction included all of the state of North Carolina west of the Yadkin River[1]. In the late 18^th and early 19^th century, the Presbyterian Church made education a top concern. Church leaders supported educational pursuits across class lines, and measured literacy by a person’s ability “to repeat the Shorter Catechism.[2]”

On March 12, 1835, two years before the school’s founding date, the Presbytery’s meeting minutes mention the school soon to be known as Davidson for the first time. (Full disclosure here: I have not read through the entire history of Concord Presbytery minutes. I am relying on the archives curated by the Davidson College Library.) These minutes state several reasons for pursuing the establishment of a college, as well as the Presbytery members’ hoped-for outcomes of the project. A picture of Davidson as both traditional and progressive emerges from the Concord Presbytery’s discussions.

Presbytery leaders state accessibility as a clear goal of their proposed college. The minutes extol the “importance of a more general diffusion of useful knowledge” and envision their college as providing an education “accessible to all classes of the community.” This theme merits note both for its aspirations and its exclusions. While the noble of the Presbytery to seek diversity in socioeconomic status, their understanding of who landed in the “accessible” pool was limited to white males. Females are explicitly excluded when the Presbytery minutes state the “importance of securing the means of Education to young men.” African-American men are implicitly excluded; one must look to the manifestation of the Presbytery’s vision, early experiences at Davidson College, to illuminate the experience of African-American men specifically. During the first few years, the only African-Americans on Davidson’s campus were local enslaved persons employed by the College[3]. Robert Morrison (mentioned in the Presbytery meeting minutes as “R. H. Morrison”) himself owned a man and woman who continued to work for him through his tenure as the first president of Davidson College[4]. Thus, Presbytery leaders’ conception of “a more general diffusion” halted at openness to all class levels.

Given the above, current students at Davidson College often call Davidson’s initial set-up conservative. On one level, they are correct. Davidson’s visionaries worked within the traditional American understanding of who mattered in the population. However, in terms of pedagogy, the Concord Presbytery founded Davidson College in line with a progressive movement spreading across the country: the Manual Labor School movement. Manual Labor Schools integrated physical labor, like gardening, into classical curriculum. The Manual Labor School movement gained traction in the late 1820s, with most new schools popping up between 1825 and 1835[5]. Early 19^th century American public discourse became preoccupied with the idea that a sedentary lifestyle or too much intellectualism caused a multitude of physical ills[6]. Thus followed the rise of the public gymnasium and a new focus on intentional daily exercise[7].

Many educators expressed the need for students’ to offset mental activity with physical. Their reasoning was twofold: 1) an attempt to promote physical health, and 2) a belief that both physical and mental exercise was necessary for developing personal virtue[8]. With their combined curriculum, Manual Labor Schools promised to more deeply instill morality in their pupils. Additionally, proponents saw Manual Labor Schools as a solution to the frivolous exercise promoted by gymnasiums; Manual Labor School pupils would engage in productive labor, building up community infrastructure[9].

Leaders of the Concord Presbytery were impressed with the Manual Labor School’s pedagogical design. The minutes declare the need to “[train] up youth to virtuous and industrious habits with well cultivated minds” and specifically mention the “Manual labor system” as the best means to do so. The March minutes end with the Presbytery appointing a committee “correspond with the different Manual Labor Schools in our country” to see information about the best design for a Manual Labor School. Davidson College was founded with aim of uniting the body and mind to cultivate strongly-rooted Presbyterian morality in young men.

Works Cited

Blodgett, Jan. 2015. “Always Part of the Fabric: A Supplement, 1837-1865.” Accessed March 22. http://sites.davidson.edu/archives/digital-collections/always-part-of-fabric-supplement-3.

Craig, D. I, and James I Vance. 1907. A History of the Development of the Presbyterian Church in North Carolina, and of the Synodical Home Missions, Together with Evangelistic Addresses by James I. Vance and Others. Richmond, Va.: Whittet & Shepperson, Printers.

Rice, Stephen P. 2004. Minding the Machine Languages of Class in Early Industrial America. Berkeley, Calif.: University of California Press.

[1] Craig, D. I, and James I Vance. 1907. A History of the Development of the Presbyterian Church in North Carolina, and of the Synodical Home Missions, Together with Evangelistic Addresses by James I. Vance and Others. Richmond, Va.: Whittet & Shepperson, Printers, 14.

[2] Ibid, 18.

[3] Blodgett, Jan. 2015. “Always Part of the Fabric: A Supplement, 1837-1865.” Accessed March 22. http://sites.davidson.edu/archives/digital-collections/always-part-of-fabric-supplement-3.

[4] Ibid

[5] Rice, Stephen P. 2004. Minding the Machine Languages of Class in Early Industrial America. Berkeley, Calif.: University of California Press, 70.

[6] Ibid, 73.

[7] Ibid, 74.

[8] Ibid.

[9] Ibid, 76.

By Sherwood

Rail transport during the nineteenth century is generally understood on the macroscopic scale. In contrast, my web application closely analyzes a microcosm of the industry. The individual narratives of railway companies and routes in east Tennessee and north Georgia are crucial to achieve the level of detail that will hopefully distinguish my project from other historians’ work on the subject. Investigating these narratives involves untangling and isolating them from the macroscopic perspective, but unfortunately, details regarding the ownership, construction and operation of railroads are difficult to find. Why? One reason may be that railway owners apparently took little interest in documenting their business operations. The records of those who did have probably perished since. Furthermore, the railway network that emerged during this period actually consisted of hundreds of smaller lines, so keeping track of them would challenge even the most talented archivist. These narratives are mostly forgotten, but not altogether lost.

Contemporary travel writing offers much in the absence of official documentation. In particular, Hill & Swayze’s Confederate States Rail-Road & Steam-Boat Guide provides valuable information about the railroads of east Tennessee and north Georgia. Boasting “timetables, fares, connections and distances on all the railroads of he confederate states,” Hill & Swayze’s has proved necessary for charting routes with accuracy. [1] It introduces the possibility of treating each station as its own waypoint, rather than connecting the origin and destination directly. Additionally, a “complete guide to the principal hotels” contained within Hill & Swayze’s hints at the existence of a considerably sized travel industry within the region.[2]

Historian and author Thomas D. Clark contextualizes Hill & Swayze’s in his multivolume book, Travels in the Old South. Having collected the journals of travelers who visited the American south during the seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Clark describes the evolution of the genre. First, he argues that the Age of Exploration invigorated travel writing. British missionaries and government officials authored the vast majority of travel guides during the colonial era. With rare exception, they visited only one or two colonies, likely due to insufficient transportation infrastructure. Most concerned themselves with the “soil, climate, …fauna and other resources” of the New World, but waterways, the predecessors of railroads, drew particular interest as the most efficient means of transporting people and goods.[3] Clark then describes how over the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, tourism became increasingly popular. Either drawn by the “prospect of land investment” and social experimentation abroad or driven by economic and social pressure at home, foreigners flocked to the American south.[4] Hill & Swayze’s reveals a network of transportation and lodging that resulted from this influx. The directory of hotels contained within Hill & Swayze’s likely served to disguise advertisements, demonstrating that businesses predicated on travel were profitable enough to permeate both the advertising and printing industries. Finally, Travels in the Old South explains that more advanced technology, including the steam engine, enabled travelers to go much further than their predecessors. A typical tour spanned from the eastern seaboard to the Ohio River valley and beyond. Hill & Swayze’s demonstrates the extent to which infrastructure in the American south had improved by the nineteenth century, compared with that of the previous two hundred years. For example, the precisely calculated departure times and sheer number of stations listed on railroad timetables indicate the efficiency and ubiquity, respectively, of trains. While sailing required skilled crewmembers, a sturdy ship and amenable weather, traveling by rail was a fast, dependable and relatively inexpensive means of mass transit.

An unlikely culprit may be primarily responsible for burying the individual narratives of specific railway companies and routes: historians themselves. They are guilty of having traditionally understood the process of railway expansion through an oversimplified archetype, arguing that the free market drove expansion— entrepreneurs contributed private capital, formed railroad companies and laid tracks that suited popular demand. Furthermore, historians have observed the social, economic and cultural ramifications of this transportation revolution almost exclusively on the national level. While these generalizations accurately describe most nineteenth-century railroads, contemporary travel writing, like Hill & Swayze’s, better captures the complexity and variability of the industry.

[1] J. C. Swayze, Hill & Swayze’s Confederate States Rail-Road & Steam-Boat Guide (Griffin, GA: Hill & Swayze, 1863), 1.

[2] J. C. Swayze, 2.

[3] Thomas D. Clark, Travels in the Old South: A Bibliography, vol. 2 (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1956), 33.

[4] Thomas D. Clark. 33.

Bibliography

Swayze, J. C. Hill & Swayze’s Confederate States Rail-Road & Steam-Boat Guide. Griffin: Hill & Swayze, 1863.

Clark, Thomas D. Travels in the Old South: A Bibliography, vol. 2. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1956.

By Avery

Withers’ review of the academic discourse surrounding “space” and “place” locates the fundamental distinction between space and place in a discussion of identity politics. Withers finds that the literature tends to use “space” when referring to geographic locations, but “place” when people or groups layer space with meaning. Affinity distinguishes places. Thus, it is possible to have a “place,” that does not relate to physical ground; a place is the imagined space that contains a person or group’s identity. Space and place are inextricably intertwined. Ultimately, a group’s experience of space determines the way the group negotiates the identity politics of place, and the group’s understanding of its place determines how it will interact with the space it or its neighbors occupies. In my review of primary sources, I will generally operate with these nuanced definitions of space and place, at the same time understanding that the terms often overlap.

The 19^th century ushered in an era of great change in peoples’ experience of both space and place. My three sources represent three different understandings of space and place regarding the Colonization movement in the 19^th century. James Cropper, the Quaker author of the broadside presents a global view of place where one’s political ideals is more representative of community than geographic location. The other two documents, the U.S. Navy’s map of Liberia and the account of Crummell’s Address to Free St. Church offer a more divided and transactional view of space which aims to partition black spaces and white spaces. The account of Crummell’s address particularly, however, illustrates competing and subversive notions of black Americans’ place in the world.

Alexander Crummell was a prominent black scholar, preacher, and activist in the mid-nineteenth century United States[1]. He supported the Colonization movement which endeavored to gradually expatriate black Americans to Liberia. Crummell often collaborate with the American Colonization Society, an association made mostly of white politicians and formed to provide money and support to the Colonization movement[2]. The ACS had several branches based in various states.

In September of 1865, Crummell delivered a speech to an audience at the Free Street Church (most likely somewhere on the East Coast, but I could not find further information on exact location). The ACS published an account of the speech in their circular, the African Repository and Colonial Journal that reported Crummell’s topic as the “progress of Liberia in the last four years,” suggesting that his audience was sympathetic to Colonization.

The document’s status as a brief summary of Crummell’s address means that it reflects as much or more the agenda of the reporter as it does Crummell’s original intentions. We do not know who wrote the document, only that they were associated with the African Repository. Because the ACS provided the means and reason for the African Repository’s existence, I make the assumption that what caught the reporter’s ear in Crummell’s speech was what might catch the ear of the average ACS member.

The reporter states that Crummell relayed news of Liberia’s economic development using the capitalist rhetoric of global avenues—in terms of trade and exports. Crummell then goes on to assure the audience of the country’s academic developments as well. Crummell’s biographic information corroborates the latter statement; at the time of this address he was teaching at Liberia College[3]. By leading with these remarks, Crummell uses an important persuasive tactic. He establishes Liberia as a place which reflects American values, a place that audience members can approve of. Because this document is a second hand report of his speech, there’s no guarantee that Crummell actually ordered his comments in the way they were recorded. However, even if it wasn’t Crummell himself, the report’s ordering of Crummell’s comments displays an intent to persuade by merging American and Liberian trajectories in the audiences’ imagination. In other words Crummell creates a place of shared identity that associates two very disparate spaces.

After establishing America and Liberia’s shared values, Crummell plays into flattering notions of the white U.S. government as the patron of the poor, yet enterprising blacks. The reporter recalls Crummell saying, “The changes that have lately taken place here [Liberia], only enforce the necessity of increased activity and more liberal effort for Liberia,” a statement which assures listeners that Liberia is worth the investment, because improvements are moving swiftly, and appeals to the audience’s egos by describing their efforts as necessary for Liberian success.

Though Crummell invokes the patron-poor man convention to play to his audience, he also subversively asserts the legitimacy of the Liberian space. By conflating American and Liberian values and development strategies, Crummell paints a picture of Liberia as the next America, the next successful nation. In this way, Crummell defines future Liberia Liberia may be an American place for now, defined by its adherence to American values and development strategies, but Crummell leaves the door open for a future Liberia that is a space equal to and competitive with America.

Crummell’s address masterfully leverages audience sentiment in order to gain resources for his Liberian projects, while still maintaining Liberian agency.

Works Cited

Cuffee, Paul, and Jehudi Ashmun. 2010. “The African-American Mosaic Exhibition: Colonization.” (Library of Congress). Webpage. Accessed March 17, 2015. http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/african/afam002.html.

Library of Congress. “Colonization.” In From Slavery to Freedom: The African-American Pamphlet Collection.” Webpage. Accessed March 17, 2015. http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/aapchtml/aapcpres04.html

Boston University School of Theology. “Alexander Crummell (1819-1898): African American Episcopal missionary to Liberia.” History of Missiology. Webpage. Accessed March 19^th, 2015. http://www.bu.edu/missiology/missionary-biography/c-d/crummell-alexander-1819-1898/

[1] Library of Congress. “Colonization.” In From Slavery to Freedom: The African-American Pamphlet Collection.” Webpage. Accessed March 19, 2015. http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/aapchtml/aapcpres04.html

[2] Cuffee, Paul, and Jehudi Ashmun. 2010. “The African-American Mosaic Exhibition: Colonization.” (Library of Congress). Webpage. Accessed March 17, 2015. http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/african/afam002.html.

[3] Boston University School of Theology. “Alexander Crummell (1819-1898): African American Episcopal missionary to Liberia.” History of Missiology. Webpage. Accessed March 19^th, 2015. http://www.bu.edu/missiology/missionary-biography/c-d/crummell-alexander-1819-1898/

By admin

Richard Newman’s arguments for how a culture of print, especially pamphleteering, allowed the oppressed black minority to have access to the public sphere, were for the most part, presented without bias. He discusses with neutral language how print “allowed black views to be heard while also forcing white society at large to reconsider its justification of bondage” (182). However, I stumbled over his choice of words near the beginning of the article, when he introduces the concept of the public sphere. He claims that the print sphere offered room for black views, and that “Southern legislators and politicians discovered this unpleasant fact in 1830″ (181).

I tripped over the choice of the word “unpleasant” in describing the opportunity for black expression. When I re-read the sentence, I understood that Newman means that to the aforementioned white political elite, this was an unpleasant reality. However, he does not make this context clear in the construction of the sentence. Instead, the adjective is simply thrown in, as though it were Newman’s personal opinion that this opportunity was unpleasant. Considering that the framing of history is almost as important to an argument as the facts presented, this is an unfortunate mistake. A reader might even mistake this shakily constructed sentence as a slip that reveals bias of the author.

Continuing in the vein of diction, I also stumbled over another word Newman chooses when discussing pamphleteers, essayists, and public speakers. Newman writes that if blacks were refused the vote or could not effect change with their sparse votes, “they would nonetheless inject their views into the wider arena of debate over slavery and race,” presumably through the distribution of print media. Newman continues that “in doing so, black activists would demolish racial stereotypes” (183). I found the choice of the word “demolish” to be ill-advised. Though the actions of the activists would most likely challenge racial stereotypes, I think it is clear overstatement to claim that they were demolished. This implies that they were destroyed completely. Once again, Newman would be wise to choose his words more carefully to ensure that his framing of the arguments is fair and does not throw his authority into question.

By admin

For my final project, I would like to study communication through cookbooks; specifically, I want to explore how they reflect trends in gender stereotypes and prescribed gender roles. I recently read the book “How to Cook a Wolf” by M.F.K. Fisher, which was written in the era of World War Two and raises some interesting questions about the woman’s role in the home and in society. Although this era is outside of the purview of the course, I could reach further back in history and study the spread of cookbooks in colonial America, and examine what they reveal about a woman’s place in colonial society.

By admin

With my final project, I plan to explore the causes of the Panic of 1837, an economic recession beginning in 1837 and lasting six years. The recession had profound impacts on the American economy with the most notable being the realization of the necessity of an activist national bank. For the most part, the crash is attributed to misguided real estate speculation and erratic banking policy, but lending policy from the Bank of England and international specie flows played a role, as well. I will focus my analysis on the overestimation of expected land value with an interactive digital map divided by state or region, showing the land values each year following Andrew Jackson’s Indian Removal Act through the end of the recession. I hope that the map will convey the areas in which speculators had the highest hopes for the appreciation of land and how these expectations changed over time. Moreover, I will seek to explain the speculators’ initial expectations and any changes over time by combing through state bank records to determine whether or not banks were extending loans and, if so, to which businesses they lent and a rough idea of the default rate. This analysis will shed light on which emerging fields failed to meet expectations and which banks adopted reckless lending strategies, both of which contributed significantly to the depression. This aspect of the project, however, will not have a digital component outside of a write-up alongside the land value map.

I will guide my research by focusing on answering a couple of topic questions. The questions are as follows:

Which areas of the US most vigorously overestimated the appreciation of land?Did these areas feel stronger effects of the recession?

What were the expectations for the development of industry and agriculture following the Indian Removal Act of 1830? Which of these expectations were not met and how profound was the economic loss?

What were state banks’ lending policies in the years leading to and during the Panic of 1837? How did the dissolve of the national bank influence these policies?

I will begin to answer these questions with Harvard Library’s 1837: The Hard Times collection, which includes land maps and deeds, bank notes and a source on The Suffolk Bank’s lending strategy (one of the few banks that managed to avoid a bank run in 1837 due to sound lending). I will use the information from these sources to broaden my research to find similar documents originating from different areas of the United States.

By Cordelia

For my final project, I will be exploring the ways in which media bias has affected the United States. I will focus primarily on the media of the revolution and, obviously, Antebellum periods, and will discuss not only the biases and framing methods used, but what even constituted as media at the time. Some examples I might use are the Silence Dogood letters, the Boston Massacre engraving, and the creation of regional newspapers. I know there are many primary sources of such documents that I can research and reference.

Mainly, my project will be responding to questions such as what time of influence did the media have over public opinions? Did the media of the time have as much sway with political and social occurrences as it appears to today? How do the different biases found in the information spreading of the past compare to those found in mainstream media today?

I will also explore how literacy contributed to the growth and effects of American media and how mass media even came to be, as opposed to other ways of spreading information such as letters, or commonplace books.

By admin

Matt Hunt

02.17.15

HIS245

Did Franklin really Dogood with his letters

In the year of 1772, Benjamin Franklin printed a series of 15 letters under the pseudonym Silence Dogood. At the time, Benjamin Franklin was a 16 year old boy working for his brother’s paper at the New England Courant. Franklin went under this pen name for a couple of reasons. Firstly, Ben Franklin did not think his brother would publish his work because he was just a young man, and secondly, Franklin used his female pen name to help convey the struggle that women were enduring. Franklin writes in a sarcastic tone about problems he perceives in colonial America. His writing spans subjects from hardship for women in America, to a look at religious problems in the country, as well as encouraging citizens to do more and take pride in colonial America. These letters are an oversight and offer insight into how Franklin felt during the 1720’s as Britain started to get a negative view from colonial Americans. In the historiographical review I will examine the first three of Franklin’s Silence Dogood letters, and in particular take a look at the message he was conveying to the citizens of New England during this time.

When we examine the first Silence Dogood letter we see Franklin attempt to build an accordance with the audience. By examining the letter, we can notice that he tries to play to the sympathy of the reader by building a dramatic back-story for his character. Franklin uses a death of Dogood’s father, which occurred while crossing the Atlantic, to help make the reader more sympathetic to “Silence”, as she is raised by a single mother. Silence builds rapport with the readers by gaining empathy to the readers of the New-England Courant because Dogood was raised by a single mother and came from very humble beginnings. Although Ben Franklin was 16 years old, he knew exactly how to gain compassion from the readers without giving away that his character was not real. In the first letter, Dogood comes off as a hard worker willing to perform the jobs typical to her gender role at the time, “such as all Sorts of Needle-Work, writing, arithmetic”[1]. Dogood shows her ambition by describing her interest in reading and learning. Franklin continues to give an in depth look into Dogood’s early life in the second letter.

In her second letter, Silence goes on to write about the process of her courtship. It is here where the writing takes a satirical turn, as Franklin makes a mockery at the idea of engagements and marriage. Dogood stated that when her Country master asked for her courtship that she “burst out into an unmannerly laughter” before ultimately deciding to agree to the marriage.[2] As you read through the second letter, it appears that the fortune of Silence Dogood has reversed as she has become happily married with children. This only lasts for a short while before Franklin has her life take another negative turn. Silence Dogood becomes a widow herself. Franklin uses this moment to make the reader vulnerable and more likely to take heed to the message he has spent two letters getting ready to deliver. Franklin closes the letter with the most important information he has provided between the first two letters. Franklin uses the façade of Dogood to discuss his character and the concepts that he believes in. Through Dogood, Franklin states that he is “an Enemy to Vice, and a Friend to Virtue”.[3] Franklin does not only discuss his character, but he also discusses his feelings towards government. Franklin openly states that he is “a mortal Enemy to arbitrary Government and unlimited Power”.[4] Franklin, as a 16 year old man, is implicitly challenging the standings of the British rule. While Franklin does not directly criticize the occupation and rule of the British Government in the colonies in 1722, he does denounce everything the British stand for and the tactics they use. Though this is many years prior to the acts suppressing individual liberties in the colonies, it still gives insight in to Benjamin Franklin and his stance on suppressive governments. Franklin’s continues to express his feelings on patriotism and government as you begin reading the third Silence Dogood letter.

By the third letter, it is clear that Benjamin Franklin is not trying to tell the story and upbringing of his character, Silnce Dogood anymore. Franklin is using Dogood to anonymously express his feelings on government and other key issues at the time. At the beginning of this letter Franklin builds on the points he has been making. Previously, Franklin expresses his displeasure with governments that are overly involved. By this letter, Franklin is now calling for people to show nationalism and stand up for their beliefs. He states, “It is undoubtedly the Duty of all Persons to serve the country they live in.”[5] Benjamin Franklin is calling for a unification of the people in the colonies. He calls for the colonists to have pride in where they come from and to do everything in their power to help out their country. While at the time the country would be considered England, it is not service to England that Franklin is asking for from the colonists. Franklin is asking the colonists to have a sense of pride from where they come from. Franklin believes it is the colonists that need to stand up and serve their country and to have pride in their beginnings.

Over the course of these three letters, Benjamin Franklin builds rapport with the reader before stating his beliefs and calling for a rise in nationalism from the readers. If we look at the life of Silence Dogood in an allegorical, sense we can view her as what is America and the American colonists. Dogood represents these colonists that come from nothing. The death of her father on the trip over and her tough childhood represent the people living in the colonies. Though she goes through a tough time, Dogood is a hardworking individual that strives for excellence. Once Franklin makes the connection with the readers, he then discusses government and positive virtues. Franklin denounces large intrusive governments, i.e. England, and calls for individuals to have pride in what they come from and to support and do anything for their country. The Dogood letters were so popular because Silence Dogood represented the lives of the common folk in 1722 and overcomes all obstacles in her way.

[1] Franklin, Benjamin. “The New England Courant: Silence Dogood.” Ushistory.org. Accessed February 16, 2015. http://www.ushistory.org/franklin/courant/silencedogood.htm.

[2] Imbed.

[3] Imbed.

[4] Imbed.

[5] Imbed.