Timeline

• 1754: Beginning of French and Indian War

• 1763: Treaty of Paris ends French and Indian War

  • Proclamation Act

• 1764: March of the Paxton Boys

• 1764: Sugar Act

  • First Committee of Correspondence established in Boston

• 1765: Stamp Act

  • Stamp Act Congress

• 1766: Declaratory Act

• 1767: Townshend Revenue Acts

• 1770: Boston Massacre

• 1772: Gaspee Affair

• 1773: Tea Act

  • Boston Tea Party

• 1774: Coercive (Intolerable) Acts

  • First Continental Congress

• 1775: Fighting at Lexington and Concord

  • Second Continental Congress

• 1776: Publication of Common Sense by Thomas Paine

  • Declaration of Independence

• 1777: Articles of Confederation written

• 1778: Battle of Saratoga

  • France enters the war on the side of the American revolutionaries

• 1781: Articles of Confederation ratified by the states

• 1783: Treaty of Paris ends the American Revolution

• 1784: First Land Ordinance

  • Treaty of Fort Stanwix

• 1785: Second Land Ordinance

• 1786: Shaysʼs Rebellion

  • Annapolis meeting to revise Articles of Confederation

• 1787: Northwest Ordinance

  • Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia

• 1788: Publication of The Federalist

  • Ratification of the Constitution

  • First federal elections

• 1789: Inauguration of George Washington

  • Judiciary Act

  • Beginning of French Revolution

  • Publication of The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano

• 1791: Ratification of the Bill of Rights

  • Alexander Hamilton issues “Report on Manufacturers”

  • The Bank of the United States approved

• 1793: War between Great Britain and France

  • Washingtonʼs Neutrality Proclamation

• 1794: Whiskey Rebellion Jayʼs Treaty

• 1795: Pinckneyʼs Treaty

• 1796: Washingtonʼs Farewell Address

  • Election of John Adams

• 1798: XYZ Affair

  • “Quasi-war” with France

  • Alien and Sedition Acts

  • Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions

• 1800: Election of Thomas Jefferson

The Seven Yearsʼ War (The French and Indian War)

Expansion and War

• Origins of the French and Indian War

  • The French and Indian War began in the 1740s and 1750s when British colonists settled in the Ohio River basin beyond the Appalachians.

  • From Quebec, Montreal, and Detroit in the north to New Orleans at the Mississippi River in the south, France claimed land.

  • Fort Duquesne in Pittsburgh was erected by France to boost the fur trade.

  • The British colonists built Fort Necessity nearby.

  • The war, which changed American Indian affiliations, began in 1754 after clashes between the two clans.

• British Victory in the French and Indian War

  • In the first phase, the French were more tolerant to native peoples than the British, thus most American Indian tribes supported them.

    • British colonists failed to cooperate during this time.

    • In Albany, New York (1754), colonial authorities attempted to form an intercolonial government.

    • Benjamin Franklin's Albany Plan was rejected by delegates.

    • On the battlefield, British colonists were retreating.

  • In the second phase (1756–1758), Prime Minister William Pitt led the war.

    • Pitt's heavy-handed actions, including forcing colonists into the army and confiscating supplies, alienated many.

    • These initiatives were rejected by the colonists, putting the British effort at danger.

  • In the final phase (1758–1761), Pitt worked with colonial assemblies and added British troops to the war effort.

    • Successful moves.

    • French army surrendered in Montreal in 1761.

    • After two years, a peace treaty was signed.

• The Treaty of Paris (1763)

  • In the Treaty of Paris, France ceded most of North America.

  • All French land east of the Mississippi was lost to Great British.

  • British North American colonists were glad that the country beyond the Appalachians seemed ready for settlement.

  • American Indians in these territories were becoming vulnerable.

Debt and Taxation Following the French and Indian War

• The Sugar Act (1764)

  • The act reduced the duty on West Indies-imported molasses.

  • Smuggling was also targeted by the statute.

  • Smuggling matters were moved to British maritime courts by the statute.

  • These steps were intended to boost British revenue.

• The Stamp Act (1765)

  • After the French and Indian War, this act drew the strongest colonial criticism.

  • It changed British colonial policy.

  • Earlier tax acts regulated trade, but this one raised revenue.

  • Instead of a trade duty, it was a colonist tax.

  • Court records, books, almanacks, and deeds in the colonies were taxed under the act.

• Quartering Act (1765)

  • It addressed the housing of British soldiers who were stationed in the colonies following the French and Indian War.

  • The decree required Great Britain to put soldiers in barracks, but if there were too many, authorities might use local inns, bars, and even private dwellings.

  • Colonial assemblies had to house and feed these soldiers.

  • Part-time earnings forced these servicemen to work in the neighbourhood.

  • Boston had most troops.

American Indian Resistance and Colonial Settlement Following the French and Indian War

• Clashing Cultures in the Great Lakes Region

  • The British's treatment of American Indians differed from the French's as they expanded into French territory.

  • For practical and cultural reasons, the French sought harmony with American Native groups.

    • They bargained with Indian chiefs and exchanged presents with tribes.

  • Gift exchanges were insulting to British North American commander General Jeffrey Amherst.

    • Yet, American Indians believed profuse gift-giving showed supremacy and protection.

      • Some American Indians tried to unite the Great Lakes and Ohio Valley tribes after the French defeat.

  • In 1760 and 1761, Delaware chief Neolin warned American Indians of an apocalyptic future if they did not change.

    • He advised American Indians to avoid European fur traders, guns, drink, and infighting.

    • He prepared for coordinated, brutal resistance.

• Pontiacʼs Rebellion

  • After the French and Indian War, American Indian groups were unstable.

  • As British colonists targeted Ottawa territories in northern Ohio, the tribe had no allies.

  • British troops stationed around the Great Lakes and on various rivers were resisted by Pontiac and other Indian leaders.

  • After the Treaty of Paris, Native warriors attacked British-held Fort Detroit and six other forts and colonial villages from upstate New York to Lake Michigan.

  • Bloodshed raged into 1764 after Amherst was replaced by Thomas Gage in August 1763.

  • Many American Native groups allied with the British during the American Revolution, although smaller clashes occurred.

• The Proclamation Act (1763)

  • The Proclamation drew a line over the Appalachian Mountains to keep colonists out.

  • This was in response to the outbreak of Pontiac's Rebellion and the desire of colonists to settle in newly claimed areas.

  • The British government did not want to fight native peoples and pay for more West Coast operations.

  • Britain and the colonists first fought over western territory.

• Conflict in the Interior of the Continent Following the French and Indian War

  • Settlement of colonial America's interior in the decades after the French and Indian War set the stage for continued confrontations between ruling authorities—generally centred in Atlantic shore cities—and the poorer people inland, far from the commercial activity of the cosmopolitan towns.

  • After the American Revolution, pioneers beyond the Appalachians rose substantially.

  • This movement frequently displaced Indians, setting the stage for future wars over the vast US interior.

  • Spain and Great Britain's presence along the newly constituted US border hampered the movement.

• The Scots-Irish

  • The middle colonies — Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, and Delaware experienced remarkable growth in the eighteenth century due to the influx of German, Scots-Irish, and other immigrants.

  • The largest immigrant group was the Scots-Irish, Presbyterians, who had settled in Ireland. Immigrants from the southwestern German states were skilled farmers and artisans, as well as laborers.

• Economic Opportunity in Pennsylvania

  • The Scots-Irish first settled in Pennsylvania, especially Philadelphia, where land and labour were plentiful.

  • Many headed west into the mountains.

  • Colonial North America had less welcoming locations.

  • Slavery dominated the south, but Puritanism unified the north.

  • New York City attracted immigration, but farmers found that vast estates had grabbed the best property along the Hudson River.

• The Paxton Boys

  • The Paxton Boys, a vigilante group of Scots-Irish immigrants, organized raids against American Indians on the Pennsylvania frontier in 1763, resulting in twenty deaths.

  • In 1764, 250 Paxton Boys marched to Philadelphia to present their grievances to the Pennsylvania legislature, which reflected bitterness at the American Indians and resentment of the Quaker elite for maintaining a more lenient policy toward American Indians.

Taxation Without Representation

Colonial Resistance to British Policies in the Aftermath of the French and Indian War

• The Stamp Act Congress

  • Stamp Act crisis of 1765 started American Revolution.

  • Nine colonies gathered in New York to express grievances.

  • The Virginia Resolves called for colonial self-government, while the Stamp Act Congress Declarations said only colonists could levy taxes.

  • "Virtual representation" was the British response to "No taxation without representation!"

  • Members of Parliament represented the entire British Empire, even if colonies did not vote for them.

• Committees of Correspondence

  • In communities throughout the colonies, opponents of British policies organized committees of correspondence starting in 1764.

  • These committees spread information and coordinated resistance actions.

  • By the 1770s, the committees had become virtual shadow governments in the different colonies, assuming powers and challenging the legitimacy of the legislative assemblies and royal governors.

• Crowd Actions

  • Colonies conducted Stamp Act protests.

  • "Sons of Liberty" groups harassed and sometimes attacked Stamp Act agents in colony cities and towns.

  • Stores that refused British product boycotts were ransacked.

  • Thomas Hutchinson's Boston mansion was robbed.

  • The Stamp Act was repealed in 1766, but subsequent British and colonial actions aggravated the situation.

• The Townshend Acts (1767)

  • The Stamp Act dilemma led to new colonist taxes.

  • Charles Townshend, Britain's Chancellor of the Exchequer, made sure these new taxes—on paint, paper, lead, tea, and other goods—were "external" import taxes, not "internal" sales taxes.

  • The Townshend Acts consisted of the Suspending Act, the Revenue Act, the Indemnity Act, and the Commissioners of Customs Act.

  • By 1768, numerous colonial leaders called for British product boycotts.

  • The boycott spread across the thirteen colonies. Patriotic woman making clothes.

  • The boycott helped artisans because Americans bought local items.

• The Boston Massacre (1770)

  • After Boston riots in 1768, Britain sent royal troops back. These forces offended many Bostonians.

  • "Standing armies" threatened liberty to many colonists.

  • Colonists believed that citizen battalions should be mobilised in times of war but disbanded in times of peace.

  • A tragic encounter between British soldiers and Bostonians in 1770 echoed across the colonies.

  • An on-duty British sentry and a young wigmaker's apprentice fought in March, resulting in the Boston Massacre (1770).

  • British sentries ordered to maintain peace were heckled and stoned by angry colonists.

  • Crispus Attucks, an African American, was killed when the military fired on the colonists.

  • The episode was used as colonial propaganda to show British forces' brutality for years to come.

• Gaspee Affair

  • The Gaspee affair in June 1772 marked a shift towards more militant tactics by colonial protestors, when a British revenue schooner ran aground in shallow waters near Warwick, Rhode Island.

  • Local men boarded the ship, looted its contents, and torched it.

• The Tea Act and the Boston Tea Party

  • The Tea Act of 1773 caused a dramatic shift in relations between British authorities and American colonists.

  • It reduced taxes on tea sold in the colonies by the British East India Company, allowing the company to sell massive quantities of lowpriced tea directly to colonial merchants on consignment.

  • This act angered many colonists, who responded by dumping cases of tea into Boston harbor.

  • The tea had a value of nearly $2 million in today's money.

• The Coercive/Intolerable Acts

  • Massachusetts Government Act

    • This brought the governance of Massachusetts under direct British control.

    • The act limited the powers of town meetings and provided the royal governor with the power to directly appoint officials who had previously been elected.

  • Administration of Justice Act

    • This allowed British authorities to move trials from Massachusetts to Great Britain.

    • British policy after the French and Indian War consistently sought to move trials away from local communities.

    • This move struck colonists as an abridgment of a basic right of Englishmen—the right to a trial by a jury of oneʼs peers.

  • Boston Port Act

    • This closed the port of Boston to trade until further notice.

  • Quartering Act

    • This expanded the scope of the 1765 Quartering Act and required Boston residents to house British troops upon their command.

  • Quebec Act

    • This was passed around the same time but was unrelated to the Boston Tea Party.

    • This act enlarged the boundaries of the Province and let Catholics in Quebec freely practice their religion.

    • Protestant Bostonians assumed that this was an attack on their faith.

• Formation of the Continental Congress

  • Colonial Americans despised the British for the Coercive Acts and resisted British policy.

  • In September and October 1774, the First Continental Congress in Philadelphia banned British trade.

  • The Congress also advised the colonies to form local Committees of Safety to enforce these agreements and prepare for an invasion.

  • The Second Continental Congress convened in May 1775 and agreed to meet again in the spring.

The Resistance Movement

• The Role of Women in the Resistance Movement

  • Women participated in the American Revolution by making clothing, boycotting British goods, and participating in crowd actions against merchants.

  • The Daughters of Liberty formed in 1765 to organize boycotts, "spinning bees" and public protests.

  • During the Tea Act crisis, women in North Carolina signed a declaration vowing to give up tea and other British products.

  • After war broke out, colonial women helped on the battlefield as nurses and water carriers, and one woman enlisted in the Continental Army.

  • Deborah Sampson disguised herself as a man and participated in several battles.

• Artisans and Laborers and the American Revolution

  • Urban artisans had traditionally opposed British policy, but they politicised before the American Revolution.

  • Boston and Philadelphia anti-British street protests need artisans and workers.

  • Ebenezer Macintosh led Stamp Act crowd activities, and craftsmen and workers made up most local militias and Continental Army divisions.

  • In 1776, radicalised Philadelphia artisans formed militia and extralegal committees to support revolution.

  • They wanted the most democratic new state constitution.

Philosophical Foundations of the American Revolution

Protestant Evangelicalism and Enlightenment Philosophy

• Protestant Evangelicalism and the American Revolution

  • Protestant evangelical theology shaped American independence supporters' language and ideals, from John Winthrop's exhortation to establish a "city set upon a hill" through Reverend Samuel Danforth's "Errand in the Wilderness" sermon.

  • From the Great Awakening revival movement to independence, Protestant evangelical clergy embraced republican terminology.

  • During the French and Indian War, evangelicals and republicans increasingly compared British rule to the devil and encouraged colonies to reject corruption.

  • Rev. John Allen's sermon, Oration About the Beauty of Liberty, shows how Protestant evangelicalism shaped Patriotism (1772).

  • Before independence, it was a popular address that began with a denouncement of the British threat to pursue Gaspee scandal participants.

• Enlightenment Thinking in the Age of Revolutions

  • The American Revolution was motivated by ideology and the experience of living under restrictive British policies.

  • Many patriots fought British rule using Enlightenment concepts.

  • The American Revolution was the first of multiple revolutions that rethought governance, liberty, and reason.

  • Montesquieu believed that balancing government powers would preserve liberty.

  • He inspired British royal criticism and American government creation.

• The Ideas of John Locke

  • John Locke was an influential Enlightenment thinker who wrote Two Treatises on Government in the early 1690s to defend England's Glorious Revolution.

  • He believed that a ruler's legitimacy comes from the agreement of the governed and that government's primary duty is to safeguard the people's natural rights, such as life, liberty, and property.

  • Locke opposed Thomas Hobbes' absolutist monarchy and Sir Robert Filmer's divine right of monarchs, arguing that authority belongs to the people.

Common Sense, the Declaration of Independence, and Republican Self-Government

• Divided Loyalties

  • Even though colonists and British forces were battling in 1775 and 1776, freedom was still uncertain.

  • 40–45% of colonists, called "Patriots," sought independence, while 15–20%, called "Loyalists" or "Tories," wanted to stay with Great Britain.

  • Both sides stated their reasons—ideological, economic, or personal.

• The Olive Branch Petition

  • Some Continental Congress members wanted reconciliation.

  • Congress sent the “Olive Branch Petition” to King George III in July 1775, affirming loyalty to the British King and blaming the current problems on Parliament.

  • The petition called for greater colonial autonomy and fairer British trade and tax policies.

  • George rejected the Olive Branch Petition without reading.

  Common Sense

  • Common Sense, by Thomas Paine, a best selling book during the independence debate.

  • He supported American independence from Britain.

  • He claimed that "being affiliated with Great Britain" had no "single advantage."

  • He strongly blamed King George III for the crisis, rejecting the Olive Branch Petition's conciliatory argument.

• The Declaration of Independence

  • On July 4, 1776, the Second Continental Congress ratified the Declaration.

  • The entire Congress edited Thomas Jefferson's draught.

  • Locke's natural rights theory—that "all men are created equal" and "endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights"—is in the preamble.

  • The declaration states that "the consent of the governed" legitimises government and that people can change or abolish it if it violates their natural rights.

  • These concepts have shaped democracy everywhere.

• Visions of Republicanism

  • After declaring independence from Great Britain, most people thought the US would become a republic.

  • Since the Roman Republic two millennia before, this was a startling move.

  • There was dispute concerning republican citizens' duties.

  • Republicanism meant independence, civic virtue, and putting the community's interests above one's own for many Americans.

  • This republicanism idealised the old Roman republic, even if its workings were different from what people thought in the 1770s.

  • Several early US discussions were shaped by these republican views.

The American Revolution

The War for Independence—Factors in the Victory of the Patriot Cause

• Lexington and Concord

  • In April 1775, fighting began between colonists and British troops in the Massachusetts towns of Lexington and Concord.

  • Americans often call the first shot of this clash “the shot heard round the world.”

  • The event symbolized a marked shi in the colonial situation from resistance to rebellion.

• Factors in the Outcome of the War

  • The American Revolution offered pros and cons for both sides.

  • British forces were well-trained, had the world's strongest navy, and were well-funded.

  • They also freed slaves and received the support of a third of colonists and most American Indian tribes.

  • However, the British troops were far from home and had enemies such as the French.

  • The British lost when France joined the Americans.

  • General George Washington and skilled European volunteers led the Patriots.

  • They defended their homeland, and many Patriot warriors supported independence.

  • Colonial disadvantages were financial constraints and a weak central government.

• The Phases of the American Revolution

  • The first phase (1775–1776) took place primarily in New England.

    • Great Britain underestimated colonist Patriotism at this point.

    • The Brits believed a rash New England minority started the war.

    • After the Battle of Bunker Hill (March 1776), the British abandoned Boston and rethought their strategy.

  • The second phase (1776–1778) occurred primarily in the middle colonies.

    • The British believed they could isolate rebellious New England by controlling New York.

    • In summer 1776, a huge British force expelled George Washington and his forces from New York City.

    • At Saratoga in October 1777, British forces from Canada were defeated.

    • The fight showed that the Brits could retain New York City but not eastern and southern North America.

    • Saratoga showed France that the colonists could field strong armies.

    • France recognised the US as an independent nation and offered military aid in early 1778.

    • Franceʼs motivation was its animosity toward Great Britain, not affinity with the ideals of the Declaration of Independence.

  • The third phase (1778–1783) took place in the South.

    • Britain wanted to raise loyalist opinion in the South, where it was strongest, and even tap into slave hatred.

    • British wins at Savannah, Georgia, and Charleston, South Carolina, failed the southern strategy.

    • British General Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown, Virginia, in October 1781 after a united American-French campaign caught him off guard.

    • The American Revolution concluded with the 1783 Treaty of Paris.

Funding the War Effort

• The Continental Army was underfunded and frequently short of basic supplies.

• Congress lacked the power to levy taxes on the people, so it had to request funds from the various states.

• The war was a massive undertaking and the newly formed and disorganized Congress was not prepared for the task.

• Congress attempted to solve the financial problems of the war by printing money, but this currency soon lost its value due to runaway inflation.

• Congress turned to other measures to pay the soldiers, such as issuing certificates for frontier land in lieu of payment.

• These certificates were used as currency, as soldiers had more immediate needs than procuring frontier land and used the certificates to purchase goods.

The Influence of Revolutionary Ideas

The Call for Egalitarianism

• Political leaders in several northern states were reluctant to apply the language of equality in the Declaration of Independence and many state constitutions to enslaved African Americans.

• Taxpaying African Americans gained voting rights in Massachusetts when seven free African Americans refused to pay taxes in 1779.

• Numerous similar trials ruled in favour of the slaves, eliminating slavery in Massachusetts.

• Vermont's 1777 Constitution banned slavery, and Pennsylvania voted to end slavery by gradual emancipation.

• Several Pennsylvania slaves escaped with help from sympathetic whites.

Evolving Ideas on Gender

• “Remember the Ladies”

  • Gender roles changed after women fought in the American Revolution.

  • In March 1776, Abigail Adams wrote to John Adams that she hoped the new judicial system would limit husbands' influence.

  • The letter was considered as a joke, but it shows that she took gender equality seriously during the American Revolution.

  • The revolutionary era decried tyranny, and many saw parallels between husband-wife oppression and king-subject tyranny.

• “Republican Motherhood”

  • Several male and female writers were inspired by the arguments of the American Revolution to question prevailing gender stereotypes

    • They also propose novel theories regarding the appropriate roles of men and women in the young country.

  • The idea of "republican motherhood" was inspired by Enlightenment intellectuals and the experiences of women who took part in the freedom movement.

  • Instead of advocating for political equality between men and women, it stated that women did have a role to play in civic life, such as raising republican sons who value civic engagement and reviving men's morals and manners.

  • It also made it easier for women to pursue higher education, which was crucial since it was up to them to educate the next generation of republican leaders.

The Impact of the American Revolution Abroad

• Revolution in France

  • The thirteen colonies' Enlightenment principles and the American model sparked a French revolt in 1789.

  • In 1793, the monarchy was overthrown, the church was curtailed, and 40,000 suspected revolutionaries were publicly killed.

  • This "period of terror" peaked in 1793–1794, when Jacobin leader Maximilien Robespierre was killed in 1794.

  • In 1799, Napoleon Bonaparte overthrew the Directory.

  • Americans split over the French revolution as it became more radical and brutal.

• Independence Struggles in Latin America

  • Latin American revolutions are most like the American Revolution. Colonists broke links with European powers in British North America and Spanish America.

  • Rebels and loyalists clashed in both North and South American independence battles.

  • Beginning in 1808, various nations in Spain's vast New World empire—from Mexico in the north to Argentina in the south, Peru in the west to Venezuela in the east—rebelled against Spanish control.

  • As in North America, the revolutionaries were driven by philosophy, geopolitics, and material concerns.

The Articles of Confederation

Governance on the State Level

• In May 1776, the Second Continental Congress advised the colonies to write constitutions.

• Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island revised their colonial charters and 10 states had constitutions by 1778.

• Most of these constitutions were republican and founded on the belief that governing units should be small and that distant power may become dictatorial.

• The most extreme state constitution, Pennsylvania's, abolished property requirements for voting and the governorship.

• Several states added statements of individual liberties that government could not abridge, influenced by Virginia's Declaration of Rights (1776).

The Articles of Confederation and the Critical Period

• The Articles of Confederation

  • The Articles of Confederation were written in 1776, just as the Declaration of Independence was being written and debated.

  • The Articles lack the philosophical grandeur of Thomas Jeffersonʼs document.

  • The Articles essentially put down on paper what had come to exist organically over the previous year, as the First and Second Continental Congresses began to assume more powers and responsibilities.

  • The main concern at the time was carrying out the war against Great Britain.

  • The document was edited and sent to the states for ratification in 1777.

  • It took, however, an additional four years for all the states to ratify it.

  • The issue of western land claims caused several states to initially reject the document

• Structure of Government Under the Articles of Confederation

  • The Articles of Confederation called for a one-house, unicameral legislature with delegations from each state.

  • Decision-making in Congress was difficult, with routine decisions requiring just a simple majority and major decisions requiring nine votes.

  • Changes and amendments to the document required a unanimous vote in Congress and ratification by all the state legislatures.

• Raising Revenue

  • The Articles of Confederation limited the national government's ability to raise revenue during wartime, as it did not have the power to tax the people directly.

  • Instead, the central government depended on voluntary contributions from the states, which were often tardy or resistant.

• Inflation, Debt, and the Rejection of the Impost

  • The United States faced serious economic problems in the 1780s due to the printing of paper money and the government borrowing millions of dollars during the war.

  • Robert Morris proposed a 5% impost, or import tax, to raise revenues, but all thirteen states had to be on board.

  • Rhode Island and New York rejected the impost, demonstrating the difficulties Congress faced in passing important reforms.

• Shaysʼs Rebellion (1786–1787)

  • This rebellion was a farmers' uprising in Massachusetts, led by veteran Daniel Shays, in response to a perceived injustice.

  • The farmers petitioned the legislature to pass stay laws, which would have suspended a creditorsʼ right to foreclose on farms, but were rejected.

  • After several weeks, the governor and legislature took action, calling up nearly 4,000 armed men to suppress the rebellion.

  • The insurrection reflected ongoing tensions between coastal elites and struggling farmers in the interior, and raised concerns about the ability of the authorities to put down future uprisings.

• Toward a New Framework for Governance

  • In 1786, a group of reformers received approval from Congress to meet in Annapolis, Maryland to discuss possible changes in the Articles of Confederation.

  • A follow-up meeting was scheduled in Philadelphia for May 1787, but the Shays' Rebellion in Massachusetts sparked the impetus to reform the governing structure.

  • By the time of the Philadelphia meeting, the delegates were ready to scrap the entire Articles of Confederation and write something new.

Organizing the Northwest Territory

• The Northwest Territory

  • After independence from Great Britain, the status of the enormous area between the Appalachians and the Mississippi River was debated.

  • Virginia claimed all land north of the Ohio River, while New York claimed much of the West.

  • Maryland refused to adopt the Articles of Confederation until other states relinquished their land claims and the western lands were nationalised.

  • In 1781, Congress convinced claimants to do so.

• Land Ordinances and the Northwest Ordinance

  • Congress passed many measures to explain and encourage settlement of the territories west of the Appalachians.

  • The Land Law of 1784 created ten new states in the Northwest Territories with self-government.

    • The Law also created six-by-six-mile townships with thirty-six one-square-mile parcels.

  • The Northwest Ordinance of 1787 allowed regions to become states.

    • 60,000 people were needed to establish a constitution and seek for statehood.

    • It forbade slavery north of the Ohio River, yet American Indians suffered.

• Moving into the Northwest Territory

  • Throughout the 1790s, a regular stream of migrants came in the southern Northwest Territory, making it simpler for ordinary inhabitants to buy land.

  • The Harrison Land Law, which allowed for sales of smaller plots, facilitated the rapid population growth.

  • In 1803, the southeastern portion of the territory was incorporated as the State of Ohio, while the remainder of the region was designated as the Indiana Territory in 1800.

  • his territory later became the states of Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and part of Wisconsin.

The Constitutional Convention and Debates Over Ratification

Compromise and the Framing of the Constitution

• The Constitutional Convention delegates agreed that a powerful central government was needed, but they disagreed on how to represent the states.

• Larger states wanted a bicameral legislature, but lesser states worried their voices would be lost.

• The Grand Compromise established Congress's current structure after significant debate.

• Each state would have two senators and a House of Representatives based on population.

The Constitution and Slavery—Compromise and Postponement

• The “Three-Fifths Compromise”

  • The issue of who would be counted in determining a state's population arose when it was established that representation in the House of Representatives would be based on population.

  • Southern states objected due to the fact that slaves could not vote.

  • After much debate, a compromise was reached in which southern states could count three-fihs of their slave populations in the census.

  • This "Three-Fifths Compromise" defied common sense, but it got the delegates through an impasse.

• Tacit Approval of Slavery

  • The Constitution gave tacit approval to the institution of slavery by protecting the international slave trade for 20 years and providing for the return of fugitive slaves through the Fugitive Slave Act of 1793.

  • Though slavery was not mentioned by name, the inclusion of regulations around slavery made clear that the Constitution recognized and condoned its existence.

Federalists, Anti-Federalists, and the Adoption of the Bill of Rights

• The Federalists

  • The supporters of the Constitution were three important Federalist theorists: Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison.

  • They wrote The Federalist, which outlined the failures of the Articles of Confederation and the benefits of a powerful government with checks and balances.

  • Madison argued that a complex government was the best guarantee of liberty, as no one group could gain control and dominate others.

  • He also argued for a separation of powers and a system of checks and balances, challenging the traditional republican notion that republics must be small in order to be democratic.

• Anti-Federalism

  • Opponents of the new Constitution, known as Anti-Federalists, feared that it would create a powerful, aristocratic ruling class.

  • They argued that officials in the national government would be removed from the concerns of ordinary people, and were distrustful of distant authority.

  • One of their primary concerns was that individual rights were not adequately protected by the Constitution, as it did not contain a bill of rights.

• Ratification

  • Delaware ratified the Constitution in December 1787, followed by four more states in January 1788, Massachusetts in February 1788, Maryland and South Carolina in May 1788, and New Hampshire in June 1788.

  • In May 1790, Virginia, New York, North Carolina, and Rhode Island voted for ratification and joined the new union.

  • Federalist leaders assured the ratifying convention that they would recommend the creation of a national bill of rights to address Anti-Federalist concerns.

• The Bill of Rights

  • Seven states voted to ratify the Constitution on the condition that Congress pass a list of rights of the people, leading to the passage of the Bill of Rights, which was written by James Madison and derived from the various states' constitutions.

• The First Through Fourth Amendments: Basic Rights of the People

  • First Amendment: It contains the “establishment clause” prohibiting the establishment of an official religion in the United States.

    • It deals with various forms of freedom of expression.

  • Second Amendment: It guarantees the right to bear arms.

    • Some have argued that the language of the Second Amendment seems to link the right to bear arms to participation in militias

    • Others have argued that it is an absolute individual right.

  • Third Amendment: It addresses a much-hated British practice—forcing colonial residents to house soldiers.

    • Americans would not be compelled to quarter soldiers.

  • Fourth Amendment: ****It guarantees a modicum of privacy from searches by government officials.

    • People are protected in their “persons, houses, papers and effects” from “unreasonable searches and seizures.”

    • Authorities must first obtain a warrant issued by a judge upon evidence of “probable cause.”

• The Fifth Through Eighth Amendments: Rights of the Accused

  • Fifth Amendment: It requires grand jury indictments, bans double jeopardy, and forbids self-incrimination.

    • It also prohibits the government from seizing property without "fair compensation" for "public use."

    • In these conditions, the government has "eminent domain" to seize private property.

  • Sixth Amendment: It guarantees suspects the right to a “speedy and public” trial, with a jury, conducted in the district where the crime was committed.

    • Also, the suspect has a right to be informed of the charges and has the right to question witnesses giving testimony. Finally, suspects have the right to call friendly witnesses to the stand and have a lawyer.

  • Seventh Amendment: It guarantees the accused the right to a trial by jury, even in civil cases.

  • Eighth Amendment: It prevents the government from inflicting “cruel and unusual” punishments and prevents the setting of “excessive bail.”

• The Ninth and Tenth Amendments

  • Ninth Amendment: It guarantees that additional rights, not mentioned in the Bill of Rights, shall be protected from government infringement.

  • Tenth Amendment: It deals with governmental powers and the relationship between the federal government and the states.

    • It states that states and people retain rights not given to the federal government or prohibited by the Constitution.

• The Right to Vote

  • The right to vote is absent from the Bill of Rights.

  • The federal government left it to the states to formulate rules for voting.

  • It was only later that voting would be seen as a fundamental right that needed the protection of constitutional amendments.

  • Fifteenth Amendment (1870) prohibited voting restrictions based on race.

  • Nineteenth Amendment (1920) prohibited restrictions based on gender.

  • Twenty-sixth Amendment (1971) lowered the voting age to 18.

The Constitution

The Structure of Government Under the Constitution

• The Three Branches of Government, Separation of Powers, and Checks and Balances

  • The Constitution specifies each branch's powers.

  • Article I lists Congress.

  • Article II includes the presidency.

  • Article III defines the Supreme Court-led judiciary.

  • The elastic clause empowered Congress to pass "necessary and proper" laws to adapt to changing times.

  • The president's capacity to veto Congress's measures and the Supreme Court's ability to overturn unlawful laws were meant to balance the three branches.

• Federalism—the National Government and the States

  • Federalism refers to the evolving relationship between the national government and the states.

  • The Articles of Confederation gave the federal government less power than the Constitution.

  • States have reserved powers under the Constitution, but a larger national government has many new authorities (delegated powers).

  • Taxation, borrowing, trade regulation, and "public welfare" are among these enlarged national authorities.

  • Madison suggested allowing Congress to overturn state laws, but it was rejected.

  • Nonetheless, the Constitution states that the national government is the "supreme law of the land".

Shaping the New Republic

Spain and Great Britain Challenge American Growth

• The British and the American Indians

  • Americans became increasingly frustrated with the British, who had not evacuated forts in the western territories and maintained a thriving fur trade with American Indian groups.

  • The British also provided the Shawnee, Miami, and Delaware with weapons to resist American migration.

  • In 1785, the United States minister to Great Britain pressed for a resolution, but to no avail.

• Conflicts with Spain and Pinckneyʼs Treaty

  • Spain and the US fought after the Treaty of Paris (1783).

  • The Treaty of Paris established American territory south of Spanish Florida's northern line, although an earlier pact gave Spain sovereignty of territory north of that boundary.

  • Spain tried to ban American shipping on the Mississippi River, but Thomas Pinckney and Don Manuel de Godoy negotiated Pinckney's Treaty (1795).

  • Western Florida's US-Spanish boundary was established by the treaty.

• Conflicts with Great Britain and Jayʼs Treaty

  • The British intercepted American ships in the West Indies and southern landowners demanded slave compensation in the 1790s.

  • Western settlers resented British forces in Northwest forts and accused the Brits of enabling the Indians to maintain their wealthy fur trade. John Jay, the Supreme Court chief judge, went to Great Britain to resolve these issues and returned with a settlement that favoured the British.

  • American shippers would not be compensated for lost cargoes or slaves, and American planters would be required to repay colonial-era British debts.

  • Jay won restricted British trading privileges.

  • Alexander Hamilton and his allies saw Jay's Treaty as the best they could get, while Thomas Jefferson's supporters believed they had sold out to New England mercantile interests.

Role of the United States in the Aftermath of the French Revolution

• The Question of Alliances

  • As France and Great Britain went to war in 1793, US global role debates intensified.

  • According to a 1778 treaty, the US was obligated to aid France in times of war.

  • The deal was formed with a French government that no longer existed, and the French Revolution had turned into a massacre.

  • Despite the war with Great Britain ending a decade earlier, many neutrality-minded Americans still liked the British system.

• Conflict with France and the XYZ Affair

  • President John Adams's government tested neutrality.

  • In 1797, France ended its partnership with the US and permitted French privateers to seize American ships.

  • Three agents met President Adams' delegation in Paris and told them they could start negotiations if they paid $250,000 and guaranteed a $12 million loan to France.

  • Congress funded a military campaign against France after President Adams and many Americans were outraged over the XYZ incident.

  • Warships were sent to the Caribbean to fight French ships in America's first undeclared war, the Quasi-War (1798–1800).

  • This military encounter helped instill respect for the U.S. Navy, which had just been reestablished in 1797.

Spanish Missions in California

• The Spanish Catholics of the Franciscan order established a series of missions in California to spread their faith among local Indians.

• Junipero Serra was instrumental in establishing the first missions, and ultimately twenty-one were founded.

• These settlements were both religious missions and military outposts, and they represented an attempt by Spain to maintain a presence along the northern borderlands.

• However, the missions had disastrous results for the native tribes of California, as disease ravaged their populations and missionaries and their employees treated the local populations brutally.

• An Indian revolt took place at the Mission San Diego de Alcala in 1775, but the mission system continued to exist into the early 1800s.

• By the 1830s, the Mexican government abandoned the mission project, selling mission lands to private individuals.

American Indian Policy in the New Nation

• The U.S. Constitution did not clarify the status of American Indian tribes and nations within its borders, but it did recognize them as legal entities.

• However, they did not have legal standing as foreign nations and were not entitled to representation in Congress.

• Over time, treaties, agreements, and court decisions attempted to clarify the legal status of Indian lands, but these measures were provisional and left them vulnerable to incursions by white settlers.

Putting the Constitution into Practice

• The Judiciary Act of 1789

  • The Constitution called for a federal judiciary, including a supreme court, but le it up to Congress to flesh out such a system.

  • The Judiciary Act of 1789 created thirteen federal judicial districts.

  • Each district had a district court and a circuit court for district court appeals.

  • Circuit court appeals could be heard by the Supreme Court.

  • The statute allowed the Supreme Court to consider state court appeals involving federal law.

  • Civil lawsuits between states or the US would fall under the Court's original jurisdiction.

  • The measure made it clear that constitutional interpretation will be decided by the Supreme Court.

• Washington and the “Unwritten Constitution”

  • President George Washington established several traditions and customs that have come to be known as the "unwritten constitution".

  • The presidential cabinet and two-term limit are examples.

  • Thomas Jefferson, Henry Knox, and Alexander Hamilton led Washington's three departments.

  • He appointed Edmund Randolph as the first attorney general and John Jay as Supreme Court chief justice.

  • He often consulted these men on major matters.

  • This practice of meeting regularly with a presidential cabinet was followed by all American presidents.

Policy Debates in the New Nation

• Federalists and Democratic-Republicans

  • Public policy differed between the Federalists and Democratic-Republicans.

  • The Federalists were more pro-British, critical of the French Revolution, friendly to urban, commercial interests, and willing to use federal power to influence economic activities.

  • The Federalists' chief theorist was Alexander Hamilton, while the Republicans' was Thomas Jefferson.

  • After the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798, which seemed like measures to suppress and weaken Democrats, the two parties became bitter enemies.

  • Nonetheless, the Democrats gained power and won the 1800 presidential election.

• Hamiltonʼs Economic Program and the National Bank

  • Alexander Hamilton proposed a national bank to hold the government's tax revenues and act as a stabilizing force on the economy.

  • He argued that the Constitution did not permit Congress to create a national bank, but the elastic clause allowed for the creation of one.

  • President Washington agreed and signed the bank into law in 1791.

• Dealing with Debt

  • Alexander Hamilton proposed an elaborate and controversial plan to deal with the new nation's substantial debt.

  • He insisted that debts incurred by the national government and carried over from the war be paid back, or funded, at full value.

  • This would create confidence in the fiscal solvency of the new central government and enhance its legitimacy.

  • He also insisted that the government assume, or agree to pay back, state debts incurred during the war.

  • To accomplish these goals, Hamilton prodded the government to take out new loans by selling government bonds.

• The Excise Tax and the Whiskey Rebellion (1794)

  • In 1794, a conflict between elites and western farmers occurred in rural Pennsylvania.

  • To raise revenues, Alexander Hamilton proposed enacting new taxes, including an excise (or sales) tax on whiskey.

  • This tax hit grain farmers especially hard, as distilling grain into whiskey allowed them to increase their meager profit.

  • The grain farmers of western Pennsylvania felt they could not shoulder this tax, so they marched to the home of the local tax collector and marched to Pittsburgh.

  • At this point, the federal government took action, nationalizing nearly 13,000 militiamen and marching them to Pennsylvania to suppress the rebellion and ensure that the laws of the land would be followed.

• The Alien and Sedition Acts (1798)

  • The Alien and Sedition Acts were passed by a Federalist-dominated Congress to limit criticism from the opposition Republican Party.

  • The Alien and Sedition Acts actually comprised four acts.

  • The main two acts were the Naturalization Act and the Sedition Act, which made it a crime to defame the president or Congress.

  • The other two acts, the Alien Friends Act and the Alien Enemies Act, allowed the president to imprison and deport noncitizens.

  • Jeffersonians were concerned by the expansion of federal power that the acts represented.

• The Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions

  • Thomas Jefferson and James Madison proposed the idea of nullification in their Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions (1798-1799).

  • The idea of state nullification of a federal edict did not slow down enforcement of the Alien and Sedition Acts, but it raised issues about the relationship between the federal government and the states.

• Washington and Neutrality

  • President Washington issued the Neutrality Act (1793) and urged the United States to avoid permanent alliances with foreign powers in his Farewell Address.

  • His calls for neutrality have been invoked by isolationists throughout American history, including during debates about U.S. entrance into both world wars.

Developing an American Identity

American Education

• Noah Webster, a prominent author, political theorist, and educator, argued that American culture was distinct and superior to British culture.

• He viewed the United States as a tolerant, logical, democratic nation separate from Europe's superstitions, pompous customs, and bloody history.

• A Grammatical Institute of the English Language was a three-volume set of textbooks intended for American pupils.

  • The work comprised a speller (1783), grammar (1784), and reader (1785).

  • The American Spelling Book included simplified Americanized spellings, such as theatre in place of theatre and colour in place of colour.

  • After the year 1800, he transformed his speller into a full dictionary, An American Dictionary of the English Language, which was published in 1828.

• American students also utilised Geography Made Simple by Jedidiah Morse, who required that American students study American textbooks.

American History

• Within decades of independence, a number of authors worked attempted to portray American history as heroic.

• Mercy Otis Warren, a prolific author, political activist, and anti-Federalist provocateur, authored a three-volume History of the Revolution (published in 1805).

• The Life of Washington, authored by Mason Weems and first published in 1800, was a best-selling biography of the nation's first president.

• Later editions of the book included a fictitious account of a young George Washington confessing to his father that he had destroyed a cherry tree with his hatchet, prefaced with the words "I cannot lie."

• The purpose of these books was to inculcate in Americans a sense of patriotism.

American Architecture

• During this time period, the first genuine American architects appeared.

• Charles Bulfinch (1763–1844) is credited with introducing the Federal style to the United States following his European travels.

• Federalist architects were profoundly influenced by the Scottish architect Robert Adam (1728–1792).

• Federal architecture, which is influenced by ancient Greek and Roman characteristics such as a triangular pediment atop huge marble columns, is characterised by simplicity and equilibrium.

• This desire is reflected in Federal architecture.

Movement in the Early Republic

Migrations, American Indians, and Shifting Alliances

• The Status of American Indian Lands After the American Revolution

  • The 1783 Treaty of Paris between the United States and Great Britain ignored the status of Indians in the American West.

  • The land between the Appalachian Mountains and the Mississippi River had been set aside as an Indian Reserve by the British royal Proclamation of 1763.

  • The British agreed to withdraw their garrisons from this area, but the agreement did not make any accommodations for the Indians living there.

  • As more Americans moved into this area after the Revolution, the status of the native peoples became more precarious.

• Treaty of Fort Stanwix

  • This treaty was negotiated in 1784 with the six-nation Iroquois Confederacy to formulate a peace treaty in the wake of the Revolution.

  • However, the Iroquois did not occupy the land in question and their claims to it were dubious.

  • The main occupants of the region, the Shawnee, Delaware, and Miami, protested bitterly that their land had been ceded without their consent.

  • Additional treaties were negotiated in the 1780s and 1790s, but none of them provided a satisfactory solution to the issue of control of the region.

  • The continued presence of the British and disputes about the authority of negotiators complicated the issue.

• American Defeat at the Wabash River

  • The situation between American Indians and white settlers grew increasingly tense after 1790.

  • As settlers continued pushing into Indian territory, a series of military conflicts ensued in the 1790s in the region.

  • American Indian forces, led by the Miami warrior Little Turtle, engaged in major battles against U.S. troops in present-day Ohio.

  • American troops led by General Arthur St. Clair suffered a massive defeat at the mouth of the Wabash River in 1791.

  • More than 600 troops were killed in this encounter, making it the United Statesʼ single most costly battle in the entire history of wars with American Indians.

• The Battle of Fallen Timbers and the Treaty of Greenville

  • President George Washington doubled the U.S. presence in Ohio and appointed General Anthony Wayne to lead American forces.

  • At the Battle of Fallen Timbers (1794), the Indians were soundly defeated by superior American firepower.

  • In 1795, native groups gave up claims to most of Ohio in the Treaty of Greenville, but the treaty brought only a temporary peace.

  • Settlers would push farther into Ohio and Indiana, leading to a declaration of war against Britain in 1812.

Internal Migrations, Frontier Cultures, and Tensions in the Backcountry

• In 1676, backwoods Virginia inhabitants grew dissatisfied of Governor William Berkeley and the House of Burgesses, as seen by Bacon's Rebellion.

• In the second half of the eighteenth century, when the Carolina Regulators movement opposed the policies and practises of merchants, bankers, local politicians, and the colonial government, comparable tensions emerged.

• Between 1765 and 1771, when the movement took up arms against colonial authority in the War of the Regulation, tensions reached a peak.

• Due to drought and low harvests, the collection of debts in these backcountry regions contributed to the revolt.

• Farmers were reliant on neighbourhood businesses and banks for credit and loans.

• The Paxton Boys rebellion in western Pennsylvania (1763–1764) was an attempt to contest the authority of local court authorities and sheriffs.

• During the "critical time" of the 1780s, western Massachusetts farmers were angry of banks and the Massachusetts legislature.

• Shays's Rebellion was a months-long insurrection against municipal courts, banks, and the state government (1786-1787).

  • This revolt was a significant impetus for the Constitutional Convention of 1787.

• The Whiskey Rebellion, which culminated in 1794, exemplified countryside suspicion of elite authorities.

The Expansion of Slavery and Divergent Regional Attitudes Toward Slavery

• The North Moves Toward a Free-Labor System

  • Northerners saw unfree labor as inconsistent with the American Revolution, leading to the abolition of slavery and indentured servitude by 1800.

  • Free Black communities developed in many northern states and some states of the South.

• The Growth of Slavery in the South

  • Slavery became increasingly important in the South after the American Revolution, with Eli Whitney's invention of the cotton gin leading to a growth in production and reliance on slavery.

  • This led to stark differences between the free-labor ideology of the North and the expanding slave-labor system of the South, shaping the debates leading up to the Civil War.

Period 4: 1800-1848 The Meaning of Democracy in an Era of Economics and Territorial Expansion