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Elena Yaremenko HIST571Fall2016
One of the primary questions/debates by numerous authors in Beyond the Founders and in Slavery’s Cpitalism, is the consequences of the choices of material selected and rejected by past empiricist historians and how this gives an incomplete picture of the time early pre-civil war era. Empiricist historians did not include in their histories, according to these authors, how people of color and women (the non-voting population), influenced politics. Thus, they missed the opportunity to examine all aspects of the interconnectedness that economic development and social order had on politics in this era. In the Beyond the Founders series of essays, historiographers/historians explain how these empiricist historians appear to have simply ignored the power and influence of these historically underrepresented groups, and thus, important facets in the sphere of political influence they had.
In Beyond the Founders, Chapter 4: “Women and Party Conflict in the Early Republic,” author Zaggari explains that past historians saw the non-voting groups of Americans as powerless and without influence in the affairs of politics and government. They appeared to see politics as the purview of the white men. However, Zaggari notes that over time, with the inclusions of, and understanding about, the social order of that society, women and those engaged in entrepreneurship had more political influence than was previously thought: “through a variety of informal notes, processes, and symbolic actions can be considered genuinely ‘political’ in the sense that they influenced the structure of political power or the dynamic of political action” (p.108).
In Beyond the Founders, Chapter 3: “Why Thomas Jefferson and African American Wore Their Politics on their Sleeves,” author David Waldstreicher’s first words are expressed in the form of a question: “Why bother re-dressing political history?” In his writings, he looks at political “language” found even in the clothing made and worn by various groups and notes that is was ignored by historians. The author expresses the lack of past attention paid to the relationship of “clothing and politics” (p.80) in an era of boycotts and tariffs. He further explains how some groups, through economic actions, “particularly African Americans, Native Americans, and women,” were considered by past historians to have been “marginal figures” and thus unimportant in their contribution to politics (pp.80-81). Waldstreicher’s research demonstrates the unseen, but not discussed power of these groups in the political arena.
The authors of the collection of essays in Beyond the Founders, and the book, Slavery’s Capitalism, follow the progress of white women and people of color, who though disenfranchised politically, did have political influence through economical and social means. The authors argue that they had an important place in early American politics, and that their roles, which were rarely, if ever, included in prior histories on the pre-Civil War era, should have been included in order to have a truer picture of early political workings in this era. c