History Discussion 1.

US I - LESSON TWO

This lesson contains my ideas about US History. It is meant to give you information, and to get you to think. The lesson is drawn from various sources and may or may not agree with concepts and ideas from your textbook. 

Mercantilism. – England continued to halfheartedly enforce mercantilism. In the 1600s it was the Navigation Acts prohibiting trade with Holland. In the 1700s they tried the Molasses Act prohibiting trade with France. Like its predecessor this act was never enforced. Why? If you think about it pure mercantilism would never work. Here is an example of pure mercantilism: I am the colony. You are the mother country. I chop down a tree (raw material) and sell it to you for $1. You make a table from the tree (finished product) and offer to sell it to me for $5. How do I pay for this? I only have $1. The whole system is bankrupt after just one transaction. Mercantilism only worked as long as the mother country turned a blind eye to her colonies as they manufactured goods for themselves and traded with other countries and with other colonies.

Agriculture – From the 1600s through the 1800s America's cash crops came from the South. In the 1600s tobacco was the cash crop. From Maryland to Carolina any cleared spot had tobacco growing on it. When you stepped out the door of your house you had to be careful because tobacco was probably growing on your doorstep. Having all of your economic eggs in one basket is never a good idea. What happens if blight destroys the crop? What if there is a large surplus of tobacco? Your economy would collapse. In the 1700s the South diversified. Tobacco, rice, sugar, cotton, and indigo all become major cash crops. Now if something happened to one, the economy would still survive. By the way, if you are wondering why cotton is not "the" crop here's why. Until Eli Whitney developed the cotton gin toward the end of the 1700s cotton was a major pain in the neck. Seeds had to be picked out of each ball by hand. The only people who grew cotton were those who could not grow tobacco, sugar, rice, or indigo. (Do you know what indigo is used for? If not, go to a search engine like Google and check it out.) When we get to the 1800s we will see that courtesy of Whitney's cotton gin everyone will grow cotton, the South will be back to one cash crop and in the 1860s this will really hurt their economy and their chances of winning the Civil War.

Great Awakening – By 1710 organized religion in the colonies had fallen on hard times. Few people actually belonged to or attended a church. If you asked the typical colonist what they were, they would say "Christian." Then when you said "What church?" they would look confused. "Church"? We had one until about 7 years ago, but it's gone now. If I remember right I think we were Congregationalist, but that was years ago. How did colonies, six of which were founded by religious groups, become so irreligious? Perhaps it was a reaction against the use of religion to kill and persecute in Salem. Perhaps there were other factors too. At any rate, by 1720 organized religion was almost dead. Then something happened. New preachers like Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield began a religious revival. Many new religious groups were formed. The revival lasted from 1720 to 1760 and by the time it was over America had found religion again. The revival had political implications too. It guaranteed separation of church and state. Prior to 1720 many colonies had majority religions, so Puritans controlled Massachusetts and Anglicans controlled Virginia because they were the majority population. By 1760 no colony had a majority of its people adhering to one religious denomination.

Repression – After the French were defeated England began attempts to bring the colonies under control. But why? From 1607 to 1763, except for James II's ill-fated attempt, the colonies had been self-governing. Suddenly England wanted to take over. What had the colonists done? During the Seven Years War the colonists had shown lukewarm support for England. Even when England was losing the war, colonists continued to trade with France and her colonies. This did not sit well with the British government or King. When the war ended England ran a study to determine if the colonies were paying their fair share of taxes. They were underpaying by a large margin. England resolved to make the colonies pay their fair share. The only problem was each time England put a tax on something, sugar, coffee, legal papers, tea, etc. the colonists simply refused to buy the item until the tax was rescinded. Resentment grew until the colonists dumped English tea into Boston Harbor. England closed the port. The colonists prepared for revolt. After Lexington and Concord it would only be a matter of time before there was a declaration of independence.

Indians – For years, Indians had made it easy for the English to exterminate them. Each tribe hated its next door neighbor so much that they helped or cheered the English on when the English came to exterminate that neighbor. They never gave any thought to what the English would do next. Picture this: An Englishman, Huron, and Mohawk walking through the woods. Suddenly they all run into each other. The Englishman thinks "Me and two Indians. I'm dead." Then to his amazement the Indians attack each other. The Englishman happily realizes the Indians are from two different tribes. He sits back and waits for the Indians to kill each other. Now switch to the Appalachians. An Algonquin, and Englishman, and a Frenchman walking in the woods. They run into each other (Sound familiar?) The Indian says "Oh no! I'm dead."  To his amazement the two whites kill each other. The Indians learned from these experiences, and prior to the French and Indian War, Indians living along the boundary between the French and English colonies survived by playing the English and French off against each other. After the war the French were gone and Indians living along the old boundary now felt the full wrath of the English colonists. Then something amazing happened. Indian tribes actually united under the leadership of Chief Pontiac to try to stop the whites. They failed, but this would be the first of just a very few times in our history when the Indians would put their tribal differences aside and unite.

Everyone is Human – We too often portray famous people in history as being perfect or next to perfect.  Everyone has something they would rather people not know about.  Ben Franklin was our foremost inventor, statesman, and diplomat.  He had nothing to hide.  Perhaps not hide, but at least forget he ever did it.  Remember the famous kite and electricity experiment?  What is not often reported is that Franklin almost killed himself.  The shock sent him flying several feet through the air, knocked him unconscious, and burned his hair.  Our Founding Father, George Washington began his military career by accidentally attacking French diplomats, and then compounded the mistake by standing back while his Indian allies killed the diplomats.  Washington managed to recover by becoming one of the best officers in first the British and then American armies.        

Boston Tea Party – This is a prime example of fiction being nothing like fact.  Fiction is the colonists disguised themselves as Indians and dumped tea into Boston Harbor.  Fact is half the colonists were half-drunk while the other half were completely drunk.  Their disguises were mostly feathers in their hats while fully dressed in their everyday clothes.  It was not difficult for the British authorities to determine who dumped the tea, since many of the colonists were so drunk they passed out on the ship and were awakened and taken into British custody the next morning.

Slap Heard Round the World – Shouldn’t that be ‘Shot Heard Round the World?  Yes, and it really is, but it could have been a slap instead except for a quick thinking English officer.  The ‘shot’ was fired at Lexington in April, 1775.  The ‘slap’ took place in February, 1775.  A British patrol was marching through a town where a housewife, Sarah Tarrant stood cursing at them.  A British soldier returned a curse and Sarah slapped him.  Before the soldier could fire his musket at Sarah, the officer in charge stopped him.  If an English soldier had shot an unarmed woman, the war would have started right there and Lexington and Concord would never have happened. 

Midnight Ride of Paul Revere – It never happened.  Well OK, it happened until he got to the first inn.  That’s where he stopped, ate, drank, and went to bed.  Well who made the ride then?  Sibyl Luddington, Isabel Bissel, William Dawes, and unknown others made rides to warn colonists.  Why did Revere get all the credit?  Perhaps he had a good PR man. 

Battle of Bunker Hill - It never happened on Bunker Hill.  The main part of the battle was fought on Breeds Hill.  The only thing that happened on Bunker Hill was the Americans moved past it as they retreated.    

Declaration of Independence – Was researched by Jefferson, edited by Franklin and Adams, and approved on our Independence Day, July 2nd 1776.  Historians wax eloquent over Jefferson’s original thinking as he wrote our Declaration.  Problem is if Tommy was in this class and turned his Declaration in as a research paper Turnitin.com would declare his paper to be filled with major plagiarism.  Jefferson borrowed liberally from John Locke, the English Bill of Rights and other English documents.  Once he finished writing, Franklin and Adams had to delete things.  One was when Jefferson called King George a war criminal.  Adams and Franklin thought that might backfire and make people sympathetic for the king.  The other was when Jefferson wrote that slaves were to be freed.  Think about that one.  A man who owned slaves wanted to abolish the institution while two men who were anti-slavery said no.  Adams and Franklin had good reason.  They knew if slavery was abolished the South would not rebel and the revolution would end before it began.  As for 2 July, that’s the day the Declaration was approved.  In fact Adams even made a little speech about how important 2 July would become for us.  Problem is the Declaration was not announced until 4 July and that is the date everyone accepted as our Independence Day.    One more thing.  The famous painting immediately above?  Never happened either.  It took weeks for these guys to show up individually and put there names on the document.  

The Revolution – With a rag-tag army and no money we beat the most powerful nation on earth. And, we did this with only a minority of the American people supporting the revolution. How was this possible? First of all we were badly divided at home. In fact we were fighting a dual revolution. The first was for independence; the second was a class warfare revolution. Basically, the upper class remained loyal to England while the lower class revolted. Percentage-wise approximately 40% of the population supported the revolution, 30% opposed, and 30% sat on the fence. Even those who supported the revolution were willing to trade with the enemy. How and why? Both agriculture and cottage industry did well during the war because artisans and farmers sold goods and food to the army for gold. Gold? The army didn't have gold. The British army did. That's right. A gunsmith might fight as a member of the Revolutionary army for a year, return home, make some muskets and sell them to the British. A year later the gunsmith is back in the Revolutionary army being shot at by his own muskets. Remember this: The next time you read some author's lament that America has lost its patriotism, ask yourself if this author has any knowledge of our history. During the French and Indian War we traded with the French even while England was losing. During our own "patriotic" revolution only a minority supported the revolution, and even within this minority there were those who traded with the enemy in return for gold. If that's patriotism then God help us. We won for several reasons. First, we had the right general for the job. George Washington. In fact, we never should have had Washington. In the 1760s he was already one of the best officers in the British army. Washington was a colonial officer and wanted a regular commission. When he didn't get it he resigned. If he had been given his commission he would have gone off to England and would have become a small footnote in our history. But, England's loss became our gain. Washington learned from his military mistakes and tied the British in knots. Defeated in a frontal battle, he immediately switched to a defensive strategy. He used surprise. Attacking Trenton right after Christmas was a prime example. The enemy soldiers had just finished celebrating Christmas and were not expecting anything to happen. It was a 100% American victory.  Second, England sent third rate officers to fight in America. Why? That brings us to the third and most important reason. Luckily for us, England was at war with one or more of the other major powers of Europe between 1775 and 1783. England could never send any more than 10% of its army to America, and she had to keep most of her best officers in Europe to fight against Europe's best. Eventually we became an unwanted distraction and England signed a treaty giving us our independence.

Famous Women of the Revolution – Betsy Ross made the first ‘stars and stripes’ and George Washington sat watching her, as depicted in a famous painting.  Actually Francis Hopkinson made the first ‘stars and stripes’ and Washington never met Betsy.  Margaret Corbin may have done more for the Revolution than Betsy or Francis.  Legend is that when Washington’s men faltered in a battle at New Your City she stepped forward, fired a cannon and rallied the troops.  In 1781 Bet Freeman, a Black slave living near Boston sued for her freedom and won.  Her case was the impetus for northern states to begin abolishing slavery.

Give Credit Where Credit is Due – Benedict Arnold.  The name is interchangeable with ‘traitor’.  How did a man who won the most strategic battle of the war, Saratoga become a traitor?  It’s partly because he was cheated out of credit for the victory.  Arnold was the General who fought and won the battle.  Then his superior, General Gates stepped forward and took all of the credit.  Gates became a hero, Arnold was packed off to baby-sit Philadelphia and the rest is history.  Nathan Hale never said his famous “I only regret…” speech.  Nobody knows what he said.  Decades after Hale died a newspaper editor wrote those words because the editor thought it would be fitting for Hale to have made that little speech.