Newspapers – Popular Politics in Early America

November 11, 2013

The (anti)feminist movement?

Warning: Undefined variable $num in /home/shroutdo/public_html/courses/wp-content/plugins/single-categories/single_categories.php on line 126

Warning: Undefined variable $posts_num in /home/shroutdo/public_html/courses/wp-content/plugins/single-categories/single_categories.php on line 127

I have encountered a surprising number of people in my life who hold that they, belonging to a certain ethnic, national, cultural or religious group, have permission to make jokes that deride members of that group. This idea has a certain inherent logic to it: someone who belongs to a group probably lacks the malice or bigotry against their group that someone from the outside might have. Yet, I think that, more often than not, we have learned to internalize cultural bigotry against our own groups, and that a demeaning joke is demeaning no matter who delivers it.

I believe that the effective female advocates of the Female Moral Reform Society in Utica suffered because of their lack of prescience to see that an argument which pushed women into a separate sphere for purposes of sexual purity, would necessarily push them into a separate sphere in other ways. The joke-telling rule echoes the Society women’s mistake, in that both did not or do not see that crafting a certain vision of a group will create an identity for that group in the populace’s mind, and those identities are not easily shifted. Perhaps, however, some of the women of the FMRS intended that they should eventually be separated, once they enforced some level of social discipline on alcoholic or licentious behavior.

Ryan begins her piece with a discussion of contemporary historiography in an effort to illumine the political implications of her own writing in history. The time during which she wrote (1979), there were efforts to shows the suffering that women experienced at the hands of male-dominated societies, but there were also efforts to acknowledge women’s agency within the course of historical events. Then, others countered with criticism that to do so puts the responsibility for their treatment on women’s shoulders. Her examination seems like a perfect exposition of the truth: that disfranchised groups suffer from their disfranchisement, yet they can also find influence and power in surprising places, despite their oppression.

As often before, women found influence in moral discussions occurring in Utica and elsewhere during the 1830s and 40s. The first item at issue was sexual promiscuity, and though Ryan attempts an empirical analysis, it feels incomplete. The only data with which Ryan works is a 1843 survey by the Utica Society which contains 11 acts of sexual offense, and marriage records in concert with birth records of children. As she seems to understand, this is a paltry substitute for actual data and concludes from this that the issue was likely not an increase in the amount of sexual promiscuity, but rather an erosion of the “community’s ability to monitor and regulate such behavior” (71). Lack of control then, instead of an actual problem, precipitated concern over morals.

David Sierra writes that “The revivalist Presbyterian church provided them with the framework to build their own associations and the pre-industrial economy made a population density more conducive to a more even distribution of influence”(74-5). Though I recognize the enormous significance of the church, I think that other elements were just as essential in the growth of the women’s organizations, such as McDowall’s Journal, the network of charitable middle class women already established, and the organization of women in nearby polities before Utica.

September 18, 2013

Runaways: An Expendable Workforce?

This week’s readings (especially the runaway ads) were quite entertaining. Seeing the numerous ways people tried to reclaim their “property” and seeing to what lengths that individuals would go getting their slaves back came across as ridiculous in some instances. What made this especially entertaining to me was seeing the differences and varying descriptions found in some of these runaway ads. By stating the descriptions of slaves in detail or perhaps stating that if someone finds a runaway slave they could kill them if they deemed necessary makes the role of a runaway very complicated, are they valued or expendable? This idea of killing a runaway slave if deemed necessary really struck me as interesting compared to the other ads as the narrative the ad tells goes much deeper than the script of the advertisement. This runaway in particular could have been a poor worker (meaning he was not valued on the plantation he worked on), by stating the runaway is expendable a message is sent to the slave community that you are only as good to the owner as what you have done for them recently, and that runaways are the scapegoats for the problems slave-owners have (the owner of the slave really has no idea if the slave is responsible for the numerous crimes that have been committed since he ran away). Another aspect of the ads that struck me was some of the ambiguity some of the ads had. I believe this ambiguity was intentional as it allowed any black person that was brought to a slave owner to be claimed as “their runaway.” This creates I believe a huge problem regarding the concept of runaways which was the enslavement of free blacks who were essentially kidnapped, a situation I believe that happened more than is reported.

These ads for runaways play into a statement made by Ian a couple weeks back regarding the importance of newspapers in American society. These ads (according to what Professor Shrout told us in class) appeared on the front page of newspapers making them perhaps the first thing an individual read when they picked up a newspaper. Taking this fact and making a bit of a stretch with this information I feel like the question “does seeing numerous ads regarding runaways shape the way that many view African Americans/slaves?” I think that it absolutely plays a role in the perception of slaves (especially for the uneducated or those who lack critical thinking skills) as it paints them as almost “evil” individuals who simply will do whatever they can to escape their role despite the “hospitality” they have been offered while working on a plantation. Furthermore it reaffirms a thought of domination over their property that many slaveholders or those who sympathized with slaveholders had.

Waldstreicher in his work “Reading the Runaways” brings up a valid point in his work regarding the changing “possibilities for black resistance in late-colonial America” (Waldstreicher 245). Blacks were gaining roles in northern society that threatened the way of life many in the mid-Atlantic and southern colonies enjoyed. If blacks were to realize what they could accomplish in the north after escaping slavery, or even realize what they could attain if they revolted against their slave owners, many plantation owners would not see the degree of profits of which they enjoyed or might be put out of business. More importantly without slave labor the argument can be made that the backbone of southern economy would no longer be present, essentially crippling financially an entire region of the colonies.

September 11, 2013

Riots Tell the Whole Story

Wayne Lee’s look into riots in pre-revolutionary North Carolina, in “Crowds and Soldiers in Revolutionary North Carolina”, is an excellent example of popular politics. Lee is able to use specific examples of rioting and mob violence to demonstrate a greater understanding for the world in which these North Carolinians lived. Lee begins by telling the reader the background and European makeup of the colony. Then he discusses what riots and mobs were like in England, Scotland, and Germany. This allows Lee to make the argument, after discussing specific North Carolina riots, that the shape and rules of mob violence had not changed very much. As Lee is going through the specific North Carolina riots though, the reader is able to extract information about this world that would not be found in ordinary history textbooks on formal politics.

During the Enfield Riots discussion, I was able to learn about how land was granted and distributed through the Privy Council in England to individual Lords who then sold or rented the land. They hired men to act as the landlords in their stead. The relationship between the squatters and Francis Corbin was also very interesting. Corbin’s dishonesty and corruption allowed his victims to act as if they had the law on their side. When they captured Corbin and walked him seventy miles, they made him sign formal documents to reimburse the people and correct his mistakes. They acted with a sense of legality and formality that I would not have expected from rural farmers in North Carolina in the 1750s. This helps Lee make the argument that North Carolina rioters behaved very similarly to Englanders. Yet, while making this point, I was able to learn more about how the average man lived, operated, and thought in North Carolina.

Furthermore, in the Sugar Creek War section there are many insights into the daily life of these men. Punishments such as being tied at the neck and heels and whipping were discussed. The North Carolina men who whipped their persecutors are described as innovative by Lee as whipping was not used during English or Scottish riots. It is interesting then, that Lee discusses how whipping was typically associated with slavery. Together, these ideas are an example of the growth of a unique American culture. Through Lee’s insights on the North Carolina riots, we are able to accumulate more knowledge of their society as a whole.

As Ian Solcz discussed in his blog, newspapers played a significant role in popular American politics. Similarly to riots, newspapers allow us now to understand more about the culture and society of early America. As Ian says, “Without the papers, the various drunken banquet toasts that were so important in terms of the stance of different parties would have been lost in the night’s events, rather than becoming a rallying point for members” (Solcz, Rochester, NY). Newspapers and stories about riots are two of the more effective ways that one can garner facts about how average Americans lived. Newspapers are effective because they are better preserved and widely distributed. Riot tales are effective because they are interesting stories. Moreover though, riots were one of the most common ways that average Americans could make noise and affect society as a whole. Therefore, by researching riots, one can learn a lot about the people. Overall, while Lee was making interesting points about riots, he was also able to use his research and findings to further the readers understanding of popular and common life in early North Carolina.

September 4, 2013

The Different Ways to Tell a History

After reading the introduction to Beyond the Founders and discussing it in class on Tuesday, I was very interested to see how the rest of our readings would approach writing about history. Martha Hodes’ “Four Episodes in Re-creating a Life” and Jeffrey L. Pasley’s “The Cheese and the Words: Popular Political Culture and Participatory Democracy in the Early American Republic” both wrote about early American history effectively, but with vastly different methodologies.

Martha Hodes’ exploration into the vaguely narrated life of Eunice Richardson was a bold piece that attempted to fill in some historical blanks. While some of her pieced in evidence seemed far-fetched (such as, “Miss Clara is the same madcap as ever, Eunice wrote of her young daughter in 1864, invoking the common Caymanian manner of address. Had Eunice just received a letter from the sea captain, asking after the children, the unwittingly echoed that West Indian turn of phrase in a letter to her mother?”), the thought process and research that she put into the piece are interesting, creative, and thorough. She followed the story as far as she could, as she traveled throughout the country and visiting the same towns and buildings that Eunice once knew. While it’s hard to say one way or another if Hodes’ thesis has sufficient support, this type of historical writing and research interests me very much. Hodes used creativity in her piece that I have rarely seen before in a history class. Writing about Thomas Jefferson (who filed and recorded his prolific writing so well) would not require this sort of reconnaissance work. Yet, as we talked about in class and AJ Pignone wrote extensively about in his blog, the best way to get a full history of a time period is through a careful combination of the major players and those who were more silenced. As AJ says, “history doesn’t come in squares and circles, it takes many different shapes and sizes, so why should we look at the early republic any differently?” (AJ Pignone, Olney, MD). “Four Episodes” is certainly a different shape and is critical to retelling and interpreting history in the best, most accurate way.

Jeffrey Pasley’s article about the famous (or infamous, as Federalist sympathizers would say) mammoth cheese from Chesire, Massachusetts told the story of early American politics in a way that hardly mentioned the founders. Pasley made some very interesting points about how common people worked to have a political voice. Whether it was through cheese, bread, newspapers, parades, toasts, or votes, Pasley discussed how American factions operated and thrived before organized political parties. I found Pasley’s points about newspapers very remarkable as he writes, “After 1800, no serious political activist thought that anything could be accomplished without newspaper support in as many places as possible, and at times they equated the maintenance of a newspaper with the actual existence of a party, faction, or movement” (41). There was then good information and research showing how newspapers (such as The Sun) influenced and shaped local and national politics. His statements on newspapers stress that they were just as influential and important to politics as Jefferson and Washington were. This is another example of how different shapes and pieces of the puzzle are necessary to get the full history of something. While certainly not as widely read as a biography about Benjamin Franklin would be, articles like Hodes’ and Pasley’s are crucial to the historical tale.