The Early American Republic: A History in Documents

by Reeve Huston

Overview

The early years of the American republic witnessed wrenching conflict and change. Northerners created an industrial order, which brought with it troubled relationships at work and within families. White southerners extended plantation slavery while the anti-slavery movement grew above the Mason-Dixon line. In the West, Native Americans battled newly arrived yeomen, entrepreneurs, and planters for control over land. Throughout the young nation numerous groups—African Americans, poor white men, women—fought for full citizenship, while others vigorously opposed their bids for equality. The Mexican-American War (1846-1848) marked the end of the period with violence that prefigured the Civil War.

Using such primary sources as diaries, letters, political cartoons, photographs, speeches, engravings, newspaper debates, paintings, and the memoirs of participants, The Early American Republic: A History in Documents recreates the drama of that era. Englishwoman Rebecca Burlend recounts the hardships and victories of her life on the Illinois frontier. In a letter to an ally, Thomas Jefferson explains his Indian policy, while the Native American leader Tecumseh makes his case for Indian unity against white Americans. James Henry Hammond, a wealthy planter, instructs his overseer on how to manage slaves, and Joseph Taper writes his former master about the freedom he enjoys after escaping to Canada. A blackface minstrel tune and Frederick Douglass's account of being beaten up by white ship workers illustrate the emergence of a virulent form of racism. A list of instructions from New York Democratic leaders shows how parties drew ordinary voters into politics, and Congressional speeches reveal the fierce emotions that fueled the sectional crisis. A picture essay explores the complexities of American families in ten group portraits. By weaving these historical documents together, Reeve Huston conveys the challenges and culture of the foundational years of the nation.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780195338249
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	10/29/2010
Series:	Pages from History Series
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	7.90(w) x 9.80(h) x 0.60(d)
Age Range:	13 - 17 Years

About the Author

Reeve Huston is Associate Professor of History at Duke University. He is the author of Land and Freedom: Rural Society, Popular Protest, and Party Politics in Antebellum New York (OUP, 2002), which was the winner of the 2001 Theodore Saloutos Prize of the Agricultural History Society and the New York State Historical Association's 1999 Dixon Ryan Fox Manuscript Prize.

Table of Contents

What Is a Document?
How to Read a Document
Introduction
Note on Sources and Interpretation

Chapter 1: The People Rule, But Who Are the People?
The Founders' Social Vision
Poor White Men's Bid for Equality
Middle- and Upper-Class Women's Bid for Intellectual Equality
The Attack on Slavery

Chapter 2: Creating a Political Order
The Federalists' Political Vision
An Elite Opposition Emerges
A Popular Opposition Emerges
The Clash of Parties
President Jefferson

Chapter 3: Expanding the National Territory
Acquiring the Land
Indians, White Settlers, and the Federal Government
Squatters and the Federal Government
Life in the Western Farm Settlements
Expanding Slavery
Beyond the Mississippi

Chapter 4: The Transformation of the North
Before the Industrial Revolution
Economic Innovators
Religious Innovators
Innovators in Family Life
A New World of Wage Labor
Origins of the American Labor Movement
The Beginnings of Mass Immigration

Chapter 5: Masters and Slaves
The Struggle for Control
The World of the Enslaved
Resistance, Repression, and Rebellion

Chapter 6: Picture Essay: Picturing Families

Chapter 7: The Triumph of Partisan Democracy
Creating a White Male Electorate
Re-creating Party Politics
Party Issues, Party Principles
Politics without Parties

Chapter 8: Race, Reform, and Sectional Conflict
A New Anti-Slavery Movement
The Re-emergence of American Feminism
A Woman's Rights Movement Emerges
Southern Leaders Defend Slavery
Anti-Abolitionism and a New Racial Regime in the North

Epilogue: Becoming a Continental Nation
Refiguring American Nationalism
Anglos and Mexicans in the Conquered Territories
The Sectional Conflict Deepens

Timeline
Further Reading
Websites
Text Credits
Picture Credits
Index