word of God

an empire of benevolence

“fallen women.”

impassioned forms of worship

Women, too, exhorted, in a striking break with common practice.

Middle-class women, in particular, were able to play a leading role in reform activity.

After religious disestablishment

They began to see that they would need to fight for women’s rights simply in order to be able to fight for the rights of slave

several female reformers worked tirelessly to increase women’s access to educatio

men gained legal control over their wives’ property

Women and men of all colors were encouraged to associate together in these spaces to combat what they termed “color phobia.”

Temperance reformers pledged not to touch the bottle

After religious disestablishment, citizens of the United States faced a dilemma: how to cultivate a moral and virtuous public without aid from state-sponsored religion. Most Americans agreed that a good and moral citizenry was essential for the national project to succeed, but many shared the perception that society’s moral foundation was weakening.

Transcendentalists

As the borders of the United States expanded during the nineteenth century and as new demographic changes altered urban landscapes, revivalism also offered worshippers a source of social and religious structure to help cope with change.

Communion,

That man over there says women need to be helped into carriages, and lifted over ditches, and to have the best place everywhere. Nobody ever helps me into carriages, or over mud-puddles, or gives me any best place! And arn’t I a woman? Look at me! Look at my arm! I have ploughed, and planted , and gathered into barns, and no man could head me! And arn’t I woman? I could work as much and eat as much as a man—when I could get it—and bear the lash as well! And arn’t I a woman? I have borne thirteen children, and seen them most all sold off to slavery, and when I cried out with my mother’s grief, none but Jesus heard me! And aren’t I a woman?

When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one portion of the family of man to assume among the people of the earth a position different from that which they have hitherto occupied, but one to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes that impel them to such a course.

policies of their owners

Some owners allowed their enslaved people to roam, in order to scavenge for food, in times of drought or crop failures

Africans survived on the slave ships on diets which the European captain thought were appropriate for their survival

they created new instruments

American-born slaves grew up speaking these languages naturally

Europeans arrived, and as their trading presence became more concentrated

A range of artifacts manufactured by enslaved craftsmen and women with local materials helped to transmit folklore through such objects as canoes, trays, combs, stools and ceramics shaped for daily use.

Some enslaved people converted to Christianity while others rejected it as the religion of their oppressors.

Eventually, forms of pidgin, differing from colony to colony, emerged into fully-fledged creole languages of their own

Africans forced onto slave ships were drawn from a large range of societies and cultures.

descendants of African slaves came to speak the local variants of English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, and Dutch.

Some of those crafts and skills, and the objects themselves, survive to this day.

Folklore often conveyed religious worldviews and beliefs

Music

Africans brought to the Americas the greatly varied cultures of their homelands, including folklore, language, music, and foodways

For the enslaved, understanding the language of European and American slave traders and plantation owners was necessary to understand the new world of Atlantic slavery that legally determined so many aspects of their lives from life to death.

Africans brought to the Americas the greatly varied cultures of their homelands, including folklore, language, music, and foodways.

to the astonishment of the Negroes on the plantation, who thought I had made my escape to some other part of the country, as my father had done before

employed I was reflecting on many things that would present themselves to my imagination;

hen the white people would not let us be baptized by the church, we went down into the water together, in the sight of many who reviled us, and were baptized by the Spirit.

The white men pursued and fired on us several times.

I now withdrew myself as much as my situation would permit from the intercourse of my fellow-servants,

"What do you mean by the Spirit?

devoting my time to fasting and prayer.

they would often carry me with them when they were going on any roguery, to plan for them

I was telling them something, which my mother, overhearing, said it had happened before I was born.

The hands are required to be in the cotton field as soon as it is light in the morning,

no tea, coffee, sugar, and with the exception of a very scanty sprinkling now and then, no salt...

They do not dare to stop even at dinner time, nor return to the quarters, however late it be, until the order to halt is given by the driver

"THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS REST"

So, whether he has two little or too much, his approach to the gin- house is always with fear and trembling.

The hands are required to be in the cotton field as soon as it is light in the morning

Eli Whitney

the American South quickly became the world’s leading cotton producer

a sense unity that remained unsaid, but was acted out daily.

The decades before the Civil War in the South, then, were not times of slow, simple tradition

the average cost of an enslaved male laborer likewise rose

skin color of those forced to work its fields

The two moved hand-in-hand

Some even sent their own agents to purchase cheap land at auction for the express purpose of selling it, sometimes the very next day, at double and triple the original value—a process known as “speculation.”

Few knew that the seven bales sitting in Liverpool that winter of 1785 would change the world.

millions of dollars changed hands.

A single bad crop could cost even most wealthy, landed planter his or her entire life

slavery became a way of life,

sucking up nutrients at a rate with which the soil could not compete

sending 6.5 million pounds of the luxurious long-staple blend to markets in Charleston, Liverpool, London, and New York.

The change was astonishing.

The explosion of available land in the fertile cotton belt brought new life to the South. By the end of the 1830s, “Petit Gulf” cotton had been perfected, distributed, and planted throughout the region.

a machine developed by Eli Whitney in 1794 for deseeding cotton—more easily than any other strain. It also grew tightly, producing more usable cotton than anyone had imagined to that point.

The discovery of Gossypium barbadense—often called “Petit Gulf” cotton—near Rodney, Mississippi, in 1820 changed the American and global cotton markets forever.

attacked and killed a French diplomat

He is unwilling to submit to the laws of the States and mingle with their population.

have melted away to make room for the whites. The waves of population and civilization are rolling to the westward, and we now propose to acquire the countries occupied by the red men of the South and West by a fair exchange, and, at the expense of the United States, to send them to land where their existence may be prolonged and perhaps made perpetual. Doubtless it will be painful to leave the graves of their fathers; but what do they more than our ancestors did or than our children are now doing? To better their condition in an unknown land our forefathers left all that was dea

enable those States to advance rapidly in population, wealth, and power. It will separate the Indians from immediate contact with settlements of whites; free them from the power of the States; enable them to pursue happiness in their own way

What good man would prefer a country covered with forests

hailed with gratitude and joy.

cruel in this Government

have melted away to make room for the whites.

enable those States to advance rapidly in population, wealth, and power. I

he Indian is made discontented in his ancient home to purchase his lands, to give him a new and extensive territory, to pay the expense of his removal, and support him a year in his new abode?

We think of the ratification controversy as pitting Anti-Federalists against Federalists. Who were the Anti-Federalists? The traditional distinctions are largely unconvincing. Some scholars have emphasized wealth and poverty -- that is, rich people tended to support the Constitution and poor or working-class people tended to oppose it. That distinction breaks down, however, for there were many rich opponents of the Constitution (such as George Mason of Virginia) and the proposed document had many working-class supporters in cities such as Philadelphia and New York

Napoleón decided to reconquer the island and restore slavery

Haiti, known as Saint-Domingue before the revolution, was the richest colony in the Americas in 1789.

Who were the Anti-Federalists?

While not easy, this goal was far easier to achieve than the unanimous consent of the states required by Article 13 of the Articles of Confederation.

exercise that constituent power.

national political community; it helped to focus the American people's attention on the political component of their national identity.

all except Rhode Island,

Who were the Anti-Federalists?

Thus, when the Federal Convention dissolved on 17 September 1787, it sent the proposed Constitution and its accompanying resolutions to the Confederation Congress.

The delegates took even longer to decide on the form of the national executive branc

As creditors threatened to foreclose on their property

The potter hath power over his clay

Anti-Federalists” argued that without such a guarantee of specific rights, American citizens risked losing their personal liberty to the powerful federal government. The pro-ratification “Federalists,” on the other hand, argued that including a bill of rights was not only redundant but dangerous; it could limit future citizens from adding new rights.

critics of the Constitution organized to persuade voters in the different states to oppose it.

Shays’ Rebellion, generated intense national debate

Shaysites as rebels who wanted to rule the government through mob violence

Thomas Jefferson, thought “a little rebellion now and then” helped keep the country free

That November, Washington called his fellow citizens to celebrate with a day of thanksgiving, particularly for “the peaceable and rational manner”

  "As to your extraordinary code of laws, I cannot but laugh.

The right of women to vote was not recognized by the United States until 1920, more than 144 years after the Declaration of Independence.

very liable to be broken;

retaining an absolute power over wives.

I cannot but laugh.

attention is not paid to the ladies,

new code

"This is rather too coarse a compliment, but you are so saucy, I won't blot it out

I desire you would remember the ladies and be more generous and favorable to them than your ancestors.

Before the evening was over, much of Hutchinson’s home and belongings had been destroyed.16

Dunmore began to convince some slave owners that a new independent nation might offer a surer protection for slaver

Slaves could now choose to run and risk their lives for possible freedom with the British army, or hope that the United States would live up to its ideals of liberty. 

Lord Dunmore issued a proclamation declaring martial law and offering freedom to “all indentured servants, Negros, and others” if they would leave their masters and join the British.

“may be publicly known,

Some women also took to the streets as part of more unruly mob actions, participating in grain riots, raids on the offices of royal officials, and demonstrations against the impressment of men into naval service. The agitation of so many helped elicit responses from both Britain and the colonial elites.

The colonial economy improved as the postwar recession receded

Declaratory Act, was left, in part, to save face and assert that Parliament still retained the right to tax the colonies.

The soldiers were tried in Boston and won acquittal, thanks, in part, to their defense attorney, John Adams.

Non-importation, and especially, non-consumption agreements changed colonists’ cultural relationship with the mother country. Committees of Inspection that monitored merchants and residents to make sure that no one broke the agreements.

Women, too, became involved to an unprecedented degree in resistance to the Townshend Acts.

By November 16, all of the original twelve stamp collectors had resigned, and by 1766, groups who called themselves the “Sons of Liberty” were formed in most of the colonies to direct and organize further popular resistance.

Violent riots broke out in Boston, during which crowds burned the appointed stamp distributor for Massachusetts, Andrew Oliver, in effigy and pulled a building he owned “down to the Ground in five minutes.”15

The Sugar Act of 1764 was an attempt to get merchants to pay an already-existing duty, but the Stamp Act created a new

“The colonists are entitled to as ample rights, liberties, and privileges as the subjects of the mother country are, and in some respects to more.”3

hey sought to eliminate Britain’s growing national debt by raising taxes and cutting spending on the colonies.

The most famous of the anti-Stamp Act resolutions were the “Virginia Resolves,” passed by the House of Burgesses on May 30, 1765,

The Seven Years’ War culminated nearly a half-century of war between Europe’s imperial powers

Eliot was a chemist, so perhaps we should take his criticisms with a grain of salt.

2014 study showed that test scores in science and math courses improved after professors replaced lecture time with “active learning” methods like group work

Behaviour of the traders towards our Women

worthy cannot bear to be disgraced without a fault

With respect to the Land I was not Consulted in it, if I was to deliver my Sentiments evil disposed People might impute it to Motives very different from those which actuate me,

the English went they caused disturbances for they lived under no Government and paid no respect either to Wisdom or Station.

colonies are governed

change

defending their Liberties, as they call them.

commander of the British North American forces, arrived in New York City on July 22, 1756

would continue to employ this strategy to consolidate their power in North America

settled for peace.

influential in its development.

exposed divisions within the newly expanded empire, including language, national affiliation, and religious views.

invasion, a massive coalition of France, Austria, Russia, and Sweden attacked Prussia and the few German states allied with Prussia

The French defeated Britain’s German allies and forced them to surrender after the Battle of Hastenbeck in 1757.

French seemed to easily defeat British attacks,

Seven Years War was tremendously expensive and precipitated imperial reforms on taxation, commerce, and politics

Defiant slaves could legally be beaten, branded, mutilated, even castrated.

By 1750, slavery was legal in every North American English colony, b

egislative or supreme authority cannot assume to itself a power to rule by extemporary arbitrary decrees

men when they enter into society give up the equality, liberty, and executive power they had in the state of Nature into the hands of the society,

Thirdly, in the state of Nature there often wants power to back and support the sentence when right, and to give it due execution.

it made me tremble to see the Sight

– It pleased God to bring on my Convictions more and more, and I was loaded with guilt of Sin, I saw I was undone for ever; I carried Such a weight of Sin in my breast or mind, that it seemed to me as I should sink into the ground every step; and I kept all to my self as much as I could;

Poor me

I was possesst with a notion that if I had it I would die and goe right to hell,

he seeks out and is willing to join in society with others who are already united

But government, into whosesoever hands it is put, being as I have before shown, entrusted with this condition, and for this end, that men might have and secure their properties, the prince or senate, however it may have power to make laws for the regulating of property between the subjects one amongst another,

power to punish the crimes committed against that law

every man his equal

equal to the greatest and subject to nobody

Whitefield was a former actor with a dramatic style of preaching and a simple message.

only elite members of society eligible to serve in elected positions

. One of the major differences between modern politics and colonial political culture was the lack of distinct, stable, political parties. The most common disagreemen

peace and prosperity

The Seven Years’ War pushed the thirteen American colonies closer together politically and culturally than ever before.

preparation for war

urged greater Atlantic trade

This gave the British a larger empire than they could control, which contributed to tensions leading to revolution.

The Seven Years’ War ended with the peace treaties of Paris in 1762 and Hubertusburg in 1763. The British received much of Canada and North America from the French, while the Prussians retained the important province of Silesia.

Raiding parties would destroy houses and burn crops, but they would also take captives

wives asserted more control over their own bodies.

more people to marry earlier in life

women’s role in the family became more complicated

a group of about 80 slaves set out for Spanish Florida under a banner that read “Liberty!,” burning plantations and killing at least 20 white settlers as they marched.

idea that government was put in place by the people

many of these assemblies saw it as their duty to check the power of the governor and ensure that he did not take too much power within colonial government.

charter colonies had the most complex system of government, formed by political corporations or interest groups who drew up a charter that clearly delineated powers between executive, legislative, and judiciary branches of government.

These crown governors could veto any decision made by the legislative assemblies in the provincial colonies.

cared for the poor in their communities

colonial government also had more power in a variety of areas.

sizeable free black community that made up about 10% of the city’s population

South Carolina also banned the freeing of slaves unless the freed slave left the colony.

Virginia planters used the law to maximize the profitability of their slaves and closely regulate every aspect of their daily lives.

By 1750, slavery was legal in every North American English colony,

The most common disagreement in colonial politics was between the elected assemblies and the royal governor. Generally, the various colonial legislatures were divided int

In 1754 a force of British colonists and Native American allies, led by young George Washington, attacked and killed a French diplomat. This incident led to a war,

chains and fettered two together.

Africans still resisted:

violently affected by the seasickness than the Europeans

and cut one of his legs so round the bone, that he could not move, the nerves being cut through; others cut our cooks throat to the pipe, and others wounded three of the sailors, and threw one of them overboard in that condition, from the forecastle into the sea.

I have seen some of these poor African prisoners most severely cut for attempting to do so, and hourly whipped for not eating.

us arm'd, they fell in crouds and parcels on our men, upon the deck unawares, and stabbed one of the stoutest of us all, who receiv'd fourteen or fifteen wounds of their knives, and so expir'd. Next they assaulted our boatswain, and cut one of his legs so round the bone, that he could not move, the nerves being cut through; others cut our cooks throat to the pipe, and others wounded three of the sailors, and threw one of them overboard in that condition, from the forecastle into the sea.

in, and cut one of his legs so round the bone, that he could not move, the nerves being cut through; others cut our cooks throat to the pipe, and others wounded three of the sailors, and threw one of them overboard in that condition, from the forecastle into the sea.

transatlantic slave trade provided such a workforce.

New laws gave legal sanction to the enslavement of people of African descent for life.

desperation that drove some slaves to suicide

Wars offered the most common means for colonists to acquire Native American slaves

Events across the ocean continued to influence the lives of American colonists. Civil war, religious conflict, and nation building transformed seventeenth-century Britain and remade societies on both sides of the ocean

Native Americans saw fledgling settlements turned into unstoppable beachheads of vast new populations that increasingly monopolized resources and remade the land into something else entirely. 

Slave marriages were not recognized in colonial law. Some enslaved men and women married “abroad”; that is, they married individuals who were not owned by the same master and did not live on the same plantation. These husbands and wives had to travel miles at a time, typically only once a week on Sundays, to visit their spouses. Legal or religious authority did not protect these marriages, and masters could refuse to let their slaves visit a spouse, or even sell a slave to a new master hundreds of miles away from their spouse and children.