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Reading Summaries
American Revolutions
Chaz Beasley
Crosby – “Infectious Disease”
- densities similar across the world before 1492
- epidemics of disease changed the migration dynamics – made more people want
to come to America
- disease from Europe and Africa killed off swaths of natives, huge labor shortage
- epidemic either means better bargaining or more slavery
- transoceanic voyage inhospitable
- slaves more resistant than natives but still susceptible, brought over in large #s
- Europe had a population boom, many went to the Americas
- euros still susceptible to disease, though not as big a problem
Armitage – “3 Concepts of Atlantic History”
- Atlantic history is young
- Creation of Judeo-Christian philosophy idea
- Some begin with Atlantic history in WWI, leaves out south Atlantic; an ethnically
homogenous view of Atlantic history
- 3 types of Atlantic history – trans-Atlantic, circum-Atlantic, cis-Atlantic
- Circum-Atlantic is the history of the Atlantic as a center of exchange, transcends
national/international boundaries
- Trans-Atlantic looks at national interactions, seen in a north-south, inter-imperial
manner before; option of east-west dynamic a possibility now
- Cis-Atlantic is looking at one particular place in context of the greater Atlantic
world
- Term coined by Jefferson, expanded usage here
Linebaugh & Rediker, The Many Headed Hydra, p 1-70
From Lecture:
1) Themes
a) Expropriation and enclosure; the impact on disenfranchised Britains
b) Struggle for alternative ways of life; the development of counter-cultures building
resistance to imperial rule
c) patterns of cooperation and resistance (Hewers of Wood, Drawers of water,
building ports and ships, maintaining life support on land and at sea)
2) Thesis: Expropriation leads to new kind of workers who are controlled with fear by a
regime of terror in Britain. New forms of self-organization arise due to the desire to
resist authoritarian rule. The new counter cultures arise as a result of deliberate
attempts for resistance and are NOT ACCIDENTAL.
From Section:
Issues with the book:
1) Hydra is based on extremely limited view. Sources are from “high society” –
think Shakespeare, Francis Bacon’s treatise, other government documents. While
Linebaugh/Rediker say that they are writing a story from below, they analyze the
people from “below” with sources that offer limited perspectives; members of
“below” aren’t majorly cited in the book.
2) The examples in the book also offer a very limited scope—too anecdotal. The
incidences they discuss in each chapter are very specific and do not speak to the
larger movements of the period. Is the problem of being too anecdotal indicative
of Atlantic history in general?
3) An interesting view is to think about whether all the different members of the
Hydra head are working together to fight authority, or if they are a chaotic mass
that work for their own purposes and just so happen to be fighting the same
opponent.
Introduction:
1) Linebaugh/Rediker use the Hydra and Hercules imagery to describe the relationship
between British imperial rule and the disenfranchised people who make up the mass
exodus out of Britain.
2) Hercules/Hydra myth was used to rationalize colonialism and economic development.
i) “Labors of Hercules symbolized economic development: the clearing of land,
the draining of swamps and the development of agriculture, as well as the
domestication of livestock, the establishment for commerce, and the
introduction of technology” (2).
ii) Many-headed Hydra as the “antithetical symbol of disorder and resistance, a
powerful threat to the building of state, empire, and capitalism” (2).
iii) Also note that as one head of the hydra is chopped off, two heads grow out of
the hydra. The British saw themselves as encountering a chaotic beast that had
to be suppressed.
iv) “From the beginning of English colonial expansion in the early seventeenth
century through the metropolitan industrialization of the early nineteenth,
rulers referred to the Hercules-hydra myth to describe the difficulty of
imposing order on increasingly global systems of labor” (3).
3) Hydra-myth for historians
i) “The hydra became a means of exploring multiplicity, movement, and
connection, the long waves and planetary currents of humanity. . . sailors,
pilots, felons, lovers, translators, musicians, mobile workers” were
considered part of the hydra.
Chapter 1: The Wreck of the Sea Venture
 July 25, 1609, passengers on the Sea-Venture were heading from England to
Plymouth to work on a plantation for the Virginia Company of London but were
caught in a storm and landed in Bermuda instead.
 Bermuda turned out to be beautiful, and “Edenic land of perpetual spring and
abundant food.” Compared to starving conditions in Virginia, Bermuda was paradise.
The shipwrecked passengers wanted to stay in Bermuda while facing pressure from
authorities of the Virginia Company to continue the voyage.
 Passengers on the Sea-Venture were not the ideal British citizen (they were being cast
off to Virginia, anyhow) “were sailors, religious radicals, antonimonians who
believed that God’s grace had placed them above the law”
 Culture of resistance and violent suppression on the island
 “During the forty-two weeks on the island, sailor and others among the ‘idle,
untoward , and wretched had organized five different conspiracies against the
Virginia Company and their leaders, who had responded with two of the
earliest capital punishments in English America, hanging one man and
executing another by firing squad to quell the resistance and carry on with the
task of colonization” (13).
 Expropriation: Most people who traveled to the colonies were victims of British
enclosure.
 “Big landowners radically changed agricultural practices by enclosing arable
lands, evicting smallholders, and displacing rural tenants, forcing thousands of
men and women off the land and denying them access to commons. By the
end of the sixteenth century there were twelve times as many propertyless
people as there had been a hundred years earlier" (17).
 “Expropriation and resistance fueled the process of colonization, peopling the
Sea-Venture and many other transatlantic vessels during the first half of the
seventeenth century. While some went willingly, as the loss of lands made
them desperate for a new beginning, many more went unwillingly” (20).
 Alternatives: Shakespeare’s The Tempest tries to link colonization and the voyage as
the pursuit of utopia. Linebaugh/Rediker tie major themes in Shakespeare’s Tempest
with the major themes of the period: alternative livelihoods, authority, class
discipline, cooperation among “motley groups.”
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“Thus did popular anticapitalist traditions—a world without work, private
property, law, felony, treason, or magistrate—find their perfect antithesis in
Thomas dale’s Virginia, where drumbeats called settlers to labor and the Laws
Divine, Moral, and Martial promised terror and death to any who dared to
resist. Military men transformed Bermuda and Virginia from places of ‘liberty
and the fullness of sensuality’ to place of bondage, war, scarcity, and famine.
“ (35).
Chapter 2: Hewers of Wood and Drawers of Water
 Francis Bacon, using the Hercules metaphor to promote a “holy war” as justification
for the brutal authoritarian regime that was imposed upon the colonies. “bacon’s
advertisement for a holy war was thus a call for several types of genocide, which
found its sanction in biblical and classical antiquity. Bacon thereby gave form to the
formless, as the groups he named embodied a monstrous, many-headed hydra” (40).
 The Curse of Labor: “Hewers of wood, drawers of water” is the term used by
“seventeenth-century London artisans in their protests against deskilling,
mechanization, cheap labor, and the loss of independence” (41). Essentially, the
working class and the disenfranchised, slaves, etc.
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Labor imported to American colonies from Africa, Europe was necessary for
“growth of capitalism as they di the work that could not or would not be done
by artisans in workshops, manufactures, or guilds.”
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Labor work supported the infrastructure of merchant capitalism: preparing
soil, draining the fens, building ports for long-distance trade, maintaining life
supports for communities on land and at sea, from chopping and gathering to
pumping and toting.
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“The labors of hewing and drawing were usually carried out by the weakest
members of the demographic structure; the dispossessed, the strangers, the
women, the children, the people in England, Ireland, west Africa, or North
America mostly likely to be kidnapped, spirited, trepanned, or “barbadosed,”
Terror was inherent, for such work was a curse, a punishment. The Formless,
disorderly laboring class had been given a new form, and a productive one”
(49).
 Terror: Terror was the typical way of English rule in the mainland and in the
colonies.
 “In England the expropriation of the peasantry was accompanied by
systematic violence and terror, organized through the criminal sanction, public
searches, the prisons, martial law, capital punishment, banishment, forced
labor, and colonization. Magistrates used cruel and pitiless legislation to whip,
dismember, brand, hang, and burn thousands; privy searches rounded up
thousands more masterless men and women” (50).  forced into labor
 “Through the transatlantic institution of indentured servitude, merchants and their
‘spirits’ (i.e., abductors of children and adults) shipped some two hundred thousand
workers to American shored in the seventeenth century. Some had been convicted of
crimes and sentenced to penal servitude, others were kidnapped or spirited, while yet
others went by choice” (58).
 “”By 1617 ruling-class policy was to ship the expropriated to far-flung labor markets,
and various slave trades grew up to accommodate and extend the policy. Thus began
what in a later day would be called the middle passage”. Terror was instrumental;
indeed, it was a mechanism fo the labor market” (60).
 Specter of Hercules The targets of Bacon’s “holy war” were: “Caliban – natives of
America, Caribbean. Canaanites (Israelites), pirates, land rovers, high way thieves,
assassins, armed female fighters.-, Anabaptists. - these groups were targeted as
people who were threats to the establishment and needed to be re-incorporated into
society: “to turn the many-headed hydra back into hewers of wood and drawers of
water”( 70).
Ch5//Hydrarchy: Sailors, Pirates, and the Maritime State
Richard Braithwaite supported Parliament in the English Revolusion – coined the term
“hydrarchy”
It identifies two related developments of the late 1600s
- organization of maritime state from above
- self-organization of sailors from below
} together, these constitute the maritime state
the ship, specifically the ship in the Atlantic, drives capitalism but also serves as a site of
resistance
 this understanding of hydrarchy weaves in well with the themes of the course
I. Imperial Hydrarchy
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Foundations for capitalism and imperialism: seizure of land and labor in England,
Ireland, Africa and the Americas
- Deriving new strength through various legal measures
o Law and Ordinances Marshall
 Authorized impressments (labor)
 Warranted death penalty for resistance
o Navigation Act of 1651 (merchant shipping industry)
o Articles of War of 1652 (royal navy)
} these last two extend commercial and military power by sea
- These developments accentuate the centrality of the Atlantic
- The British begin to challenge the Dutch using foreign trade to advances hipping
and acquire economic power
o Also, harsh discipline
- Sir Willim Petty originates the labor theory of value
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o Does not think of workers in terms of morality, but rather, through
number, weight and measure (quantifiable elements)
By the 1960s, Royal Navy had become England’s greatest employer of labor,
greatest consumer of material, greatest industrial enterprise
4 ways of exploiting human labor:
1) plantation
commercialist estate for agricultural production
2) petty production
yeoman farmer, prosperous artisan
3) putting-out system
system of manufactures
4) the ship
united all the others in sphere of circulation
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Many ships were Dutch, having been seized during war. Seamen, therefore, were
not English.  labor shortage. The challenge was to reproduce, organize,
mobilize and maintain sailing proletariat
Press gangs: violence and terror as the state response to labor shortage. Permanent
image of lame, starving sailor
Forced internationalism among sailors
Also, cross-cultural (cross-continental) working class dialogue
Emergence of new languages
o Nautical English
o “Sabir of Mediterranean
o W. African – pidgin. Go-between language, product of multi-language
situation, basic communication
II. Sailors Hydrarchy
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Within imperial hydrarchy grew a different, proletarian, oppositional hydrarchy
One appearance of the sailors hydrarchy = piracy
Control of piracy devolved from top of society to bottom
At the bottom, seamen organized a social world apart from authority
Tradition of common seamen: “Jamaica Discipline” or “Law of Pirateers”
o Justice
o Class hostility to shipmasters, owners, gentlemen adventurers
Buccaneers: exiles. Political radicals, religious radicals, indentured servants,
prostitutes, prisoners
Buccaneers drew on ancient and medieval systems
o The international maritime custom
 Equal sharing of goods
 Collective and democratic consultation
Went to uninhabited islands, formed maroon communities
Multi-racial, hunter-gatherer settlements
Transmission of the pirate experience
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o Ballads, folktales, songs, pop memory
Why did sailors desert merchant ships/ become pirates?
o Impressment
o Poor provisions and health
o Harsh discipline
o Long confinement aboard ship
Pirate ships sometimes underwent mutinies, as well
But they were egalitarian for the time
Black pirates were both freemen and escaped slaves
Cultural exchange across race
Women outside of their roles: metaphoric to male pirate symbol. Pg. 167
Hydrarchy was attacked because of the danger it posed to valuable slave trade
with Africa
o Series of sailors mutinies (1716-1726) shook the slave trade
Slave ships sometimes captured and converted to pirate duties
1722: call for suppression of piracy
o Executions
o Enhanced naval patrols
o Corpses hanged along the coast
Conflict between slave traders and piracy linked back to the end of War of
Spanish Succession, 1713
PM Robert Walpole took personal interest in ending piracy
Violent rhetoric legitimated use of gallows
Whigs and Tories alike repeated repressions of 1690s
Ch6//Outcasts of the Nations of the Earth
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1741: St. Patrick’s Day: remembering that St. Patrick abolished slavery in Ireland
o Arsonist set fire to NYC Ft. George
o 13 fires: conspiracy by soldiers, sailors, slaves from Ireland, the Caribbean
and Africa. These are the “outcasts of the nations of the earth”
o Context: War of Jenkins’ Ear
o 13 African men burned at the stake in revenge for destructive fire
Conspiracy of diverse proletariate to incite urban insurrection
Emerged from the waterfront
Seaports had sailors to guard cities and masses of workers laboring in maritime
sector of economy
30% workers = Black
Docks and taverns: meeting places for English, Irish, African, Native American,
W. Indian threats to concentrated, established power of cosmopolitan working
class
Slave resistance: related to development of Afro-Christianity
Political effects of slave resistance
o Fear
o Repression (police, patrols)
Also, opposite extreme of new opposition to slavery
o Pamphleteers influenced by slave militancy
 John Allen
 Thomas Paine
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Multiracial, heterogenous mobs. Seaport crowds
Motley crew led resistance to the Stamp Act
Events in New York and Boston
o Burning of schooner gaspee, 1772
- Motley crew: image of revolution from below
o “Hydra,” “many-headed monster,” “reptile”
o Many-headedness implies democracy run wild: too democratic
- Vibrant belief in moral conscience stands above civil law of state, and legitimizes
resistance to oppression
- Subject = man and his conscience
 citizen
- Object = life
 nation
- Two slightly separate sets of complaints
o Patriots
 Taxation w/o rep, denial of free trade, limitation of press, eccles.
Intolerance, expense and intrusion of standing army
o Sailors, slaves
 Impressment, terror, working to death, kidnapping, confinement
} both rejected arbitrary arrest and judgment w/o peers/juries
multi-class movement toward independence
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contradictions of revolutionaries: forcibly promoting images of stability, good
order. Hesitations of Jefferson, Paine: pg. 238
American Thermidor: attack against mobs, slaves, sailors. Effort to reform the
mob, remove militant elements.
Ch7//A Motley Crew in the American Revolution
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Motley crew: destabilization of imperial civil society
Definitions
o #1: Urban mob, revolutionary crowd of port/town: armed agglomerations
of crews and gangs
o #2: Organized gang of workers. Squad of people performing similar
tasks/tasks toward one goal
Economies of 18th c. Atlantic depended on this unit of human cooperation
Overall concept of “motley” as multiethnic
This was seen as a weakness (pg 213- I don’t’ quite understand why) but the
diversity transformed into a strength
Motley crew, in transitioning from a merely technical role to a more political one,
extended its range of activity
Vehicle, mechanism or symbol of resistance
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Common experience of sailors, relevance of hydrarchy tradition
o How to resist impressments: violent battle, burrning boats of press gangs
- Knowles Riot, Boston
o 1747, 50 sailors deserted commander Knowles and HMS lark. In response,
Knowles sent press gang, 300 sailors seized
o Mob confronted Mass. Governor Shirley, reminded him of past violence
o Adams was an observer of Knowles incident. Justification for mob
violence, the mob embodies fundamental rights of man
o His “Rights of Englishmen” became universal rights of man
 Diverse rebellious subject: more than just Englishmen
- He founded Independent Advertiser: radical public reporting resistances
- Another connection between 1747 and 1776: Mayhew’s sermon, discourse
concerning unlimited submission and non-resistance to higher Powers
- Passive non-resistance = slavery
- General strike, 1768
- Nauticus wrote “Rights of Sailors Vindicated”
o Sailors life as one of slavery
 Defended right to self defense
- Motley crew helped establish abolitionist movement in London
- Tacky’s Revolt: bloodiest revol, Jamaica 1760
- Guerilla warfare continued a year after Tacky was decapitated
- Around this time: Philmore’s “Two Dialogues on the Man-Trade
- Growing literature advocating equality, that one person cannot be the property of
another
- James Otis, Jr. calls for immediate emancipation
- All men are free-born. Devaluation of the status “free-born”
- After 1765: tangible shift in imperial and colonial ruling classes, opening the
possibility for more rebellion
- PA Ft. Wilson Riot Act, 1779 (Paine)
- MA Riot Act of 1786 (Adams)
} distancing themselves from radical belief in creative democratic force
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Position of moderate revolutionaries: keeping slaves out of revolutionary
coalitions
British manipulated this by offering freedom to servants and slaves willing to join
royal forces
o American leaders then enforced slavery, excluded Blacks
Attitude that sailors were irresponsible citizens. Pg. 239: class prejudice
Slaves and sailors thus removed from process of revolution, whereas previously
they had been essential components
Evolution of motley crew…re-definition (by new ruling class) of race and
citizenship to specifically exclude them, divide and marginalize
Vectors of revolution
o Sailors: vector, transmitting revolutionary spirit from N. America to the
Caribbean
o Dispersed around Atlantic: multidirectional vector of revolution
…towards Haitian revolution
- Olaudah Equino: evolving understanding of freedom, of self-definition
- Exposure to different oppressions: experience, observation
- “citizen of the world” = cosmopolitanism
- Pan-Africanism
Ch8//The Conspiracy of Edward and Catherine Despard
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Edward Despard: leader in organizing revolutionary army in England and Ireland
against the government to declare a republic
Hanged, beheaded
Soldiers had collaborated with dockworkers, common laborers, and sailors
Called Parliament the “Den of Thieves” and the government the “Man Eaters”
E. Despard was publicly religious
Catherine Despard: African American woman, active in prisoners’-rights
movement
Also worked at highest levels of society and government
Revolutionary struggles have been framed as part of English, French or Irish
history – but they were Atlantic. History-writing has eclipsed Catherine Despard,
who remained a shadow within a shadow within a shadow (a revolutionary black
woman – a “solitary shadow waling on the margin on non-entity”)
An Atlantic perspective is necessary to understanding Despard because he lived in
both European and American continents
Arrived in Jamaica in the aftermath of Tacky’s revolt
Several female freedom fighters in Jamaica
Dependence on African women, and in Nicaragua, on native Mosquito Indians
Racist Baymen prompted “people of color” to petition in 1787 against their
exclusion from land by reason of race. Joshua Jones was a main signatory
Edward’s use of the term “the Human Race” was radical
o Took much of its power from its opposition to a contary conception of
race that had emerged in the 1790s
o The Orange Order had formed in Ireland as a terrorist church-and-cking
mob, creating religious bigotry
1800-1803: slaves were especially active
Edward’s future fellow prisoner, Thomas Spence, wrote a commonist plan The
Marine Republic
In some sense, Despard’s conspiracy was a continuation of the Irish rebellion and
its expansion into England
Rebellion of 1798, slaughter of thirty thousand, many of them (United Irish)
transported to Jamaica where they were drafted into regiments
Linebaugh and Rediker think of the prison as an important meeting place for
insurrectionists. Despard spent much of the 1790s in jail
Catherine Despard worked with other prisoners’ wives, organizing a defense
campaign in Parliament and the newspapers
Ideas for Despard’s conspiracy were “polytopian”
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o Freedom from the Mosquito Indians of Nicaragua who had “highest ideas
of freedom”
o Equality from the struggles of the motley crew in the American
Revolution
o Justice from the ethics of United Irishmen
Despard compared revolutionary struggle of the human race with divine agency
Ottobah Cugoano: London servant originally from Gold Coast, slave in Grenada
o Abolitionist, experienced preacher and writer, powerful voice of freedom,
devout believer in the “everlasting gospel”
o Referred to “many shades of the rainbow,” instead of different races
o Advocated abolition of death penalty
After each major uprising, racist doctrine of white supremacy further evolved
o After Tacky’s Revolt, History of Jamaica by Edward Long
o After American Revolution, An Essay on the Causes of the Variety of
Complexion and Figure of the Human Species, Samuel Smith 1787
Breen, “Empire of Goods”
 Circulation and trade of goods form social and economic ties between the
colonies and Britain
 Few historians have taken an “imperial” approach to studying the American
revolution; that is, one that considers specifically the mother colony and the
revolution in the larger picture of the world, and how this relationship affected the
average colonist. Charles McLean Andrews attempted this.
 Fragile institutional ties between the colonists and Britain.
 Must look at British empire not as an institutional structure but as a process of
cultural ties
 Empire characterized by vast movement of people (Bernard Bailyn)
 John J. McCusker and Russel Menard describe the economic development of the
colonies and Britain during the pre-revolutionary period in their book, “The
Economy of British America”
o Staple thesis: Europeans who settled in North America were governed by
economic interests- wanted to improve their economic status.
o Different exports for different regions (tobacco, rice, indigo, fish, etc.)
 Exports played key role in history of North America
o Expanding market creates linkages
 Expanding industrialization in Britain creates market for colonial exports
o “birth of commercial society”
 Consumer demand drove economic change
o Status associated with buying certain items
o More peddlers, shops, merchants
o Advertising
 Must look at consumption as well as production to understand economic history
 Easy manufacturing of goods blurred social boundaries; more “luxury” items now
affordable
 Pre-capitalist theory: American farmers did not participate in the risks associated
with free capitalism and trade, instead were self-sufficient.
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o Rebukes this; history shows no proof. Colonists were very capitalistic
Market economy did not destroy community of colonies; maybe even promoted it
Impossible for colonies to be completely self-sufficient; commerce was necessary
Surprising prosperity, generated by increased commerce with Britain, found in the
quickly expanding colonies
Both colonists and British citizens sensitive to their interdependence
1740s- American consumerism drastically increases
o Increased exports to pay for this
o Seen at even the lowest levels of colonial society, not just rich
o Tea was a central item- not just for rich anymore
Introduction of competition and choice for consumers
Distribution of goods created complex commercial networks (merchants,
shopkeepers, buyers, colonists, British, governments, etc.)
Colonists seldom complained about the Navigation Acts
o Costs offset by benefits
Increasing colonial objections to economic framework that required all trade to go
through British ships and merchants; they wanted a bigger share of the profits.
Americans tried to ship goods themselves. Scots moved in to establish trade with
Chesapeake colonies.
o Increasing competition served to draw colonial consumers even closer to
mother colony.
Commercial relationship promoted by small shops and stores.
Peddlers also played important role
Drastic expansion of credit in the mid 1700’s- entire chain of rural American
merchandising with British depended on this
Consumer goods became a new “vocabulary”, “social discourse”
“Road to Americanization ran through Anglicization”
o Colonists firsts had to be submerged into British commercial culture in
order to form new identity
When later colonists, after series of grievances, declared independence from
British commercialism (non-importation/exportation), the political ties of the
empire fell apart
Davis, “Slavery in Colonial North America”
DuBois and Garrigus, “The French Caribbean in the Eighteenth Century”
 French St. Domingue began as outlaw territory. Castaways sand indentured
servants fleeing other French colonies came first, taking Spanish land. There was
lot of piracy.
 In 1664 French government took over, it became Saint-Domingue on the western
sides.
 Focused on Sugar in the island. This shaped the life.
 Quickly became the most significant possession.
 By middle of the eighteenth century, it was the wealthiest French colony and
largest sugar exporter.
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Planters invested heavily in their estates.
Divided into three provinces. There was a difference between the French side and
the Spanish, Santo Domingo.
Le Cap was the big Atlantic City; a lot of slaves came here first. It was more
connected to France than Port Au Prince, the official capital
At first the plantations were worked by a mix of indentured servants and slaves,
as the economy expanded servants declined and slaves rose. By 18th century
slaves were 90% of the population.
Wealth was described in terms of the numbers of slaves one had
They were an import based society for sustenance and slaves.
The imbalance between slaves and whites was extreme. These plantations were
much larger than in NA colonies.
Treatment of slaves governed by Code Noir issued by Louis XIV in 1685, but in
practice this was ignored and violence was essential.
Slaves were divided into work gangs and labored under other slave, commandeurs
(drivers) - the slave elite, often island born, didn’t do field work.
Several hundred racist free blacks were wealthy planters and merchants and this
would lead the way to revolution.- they cultivated coffee and indigo (cheaper to
produce)
Saint Domingue had a secure slave regime. The security of the master class rested
on cooperation between whites and free colored.
1730s- Marechaussee founded as police force to supplement the colonial militia in
policing slaves. Used free colored men
Free colored did not have equal rights however they were ordered to do policing
jobs and only after the French Revolution did they begin to press for rights.
Poor Whites had it bad too. – they wanted land and were treated poorly
The wealthy also had complaints- resented trade laws
Debate over reforms presaged conflicts and accusations- commonplace during
Revolution years.
St. Domingue had relatively small rebel tradition until 1791
Conclusion- St Domingue’s rapid transformation from near empty frontier to densely
populated economic powerhouse made it ripe for tensions. The plantation economy
transformed the landscape and the circulation of products, people and ideas.
Free people of color, wealthy and content with the order were frustrated by legal
discrimination, Whites were divided in complex ways wanting to transform their
relationship with France, and the enslaved lived under brutal regime…. All setting the
stage for revolt!!
Purvis – “Seven Year’s War and Its Political Legacy”
- British attack French forts in hopes of a quick victory to oust French from frontier
- Plan fails, British seen as beatable, declare war on French in 1756
- 1st war where Americans fought alongside British regulars
- Colonial assemblies used war shortages to force governors to comply with their
wishes
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Assemblies that did send troops often sent them ill-prepared to fight
Tensions arise over British officers getting precedent (in all cases) over colonial
officers
Many British citizens initially opposed war, but warmed to it in 1757
William Pitt becomes PM, and new resolve to defeat France comes
Pitt offers to address colonial war grievances and reimburse for war debts
Era of British-Colonial goodwill from 1758-63
Parliament did not know (or care) about colonial help during war effort
Large debts led to call for taxing the colonies, tighter regulation
Increased taxes and regulations took colonials by surprise, angered them, thought
the Crown was ungrateful for colonial help in war
7 yrs war sets stage for future British-American antagonism
Holton, Forced Founders
Introduction
- The author challenges two notions: (a) the gentry was brimming with confidence before
the revolution. (b) the gentry was in complete control of its relations with Indians,
smallholders, slaves, and British merchants.
CH I – Land Speculators Versus Indians and the Privy Council
- Virginia was very interested in the Kentucky area but that was key hunting
ground for Native Americans. The British didn’t want colonists to expand to KY
because they didn’t want them to be attacked by Native Americans, and then have
to send troops to protect the colonists.
- Iroquois, who didn’t care about their land in KY, sold rights to land at the Fort
Stanwix cession.
- Many tribes north and south of the Ohio River reconciled differences in an antiBritish league. But northern Indians and southern Indians fought even while they
were both in the league.
- In 1774, Dunmore’s War. After an Indian committed a revenge raid for the
murder of a family member, Virginian settlers used the opportunity to send 2000
men to attack the Shawnee and the Mingo (who wouldn’t give up the land in KY
peacefully).
- VA forced Indians to give deed to all land east of the Ohio River.
- VA was angered by Britain’s continued enforcement of the Proclamation of 1763
and the Quebec Act, which gave land west of Ohio River to Quebec.
- VA revolutionaries like George Mason, Richard Henry Lee, Washington,
Jefferson, and Patrick Henry Lee were all land speculators.
CH 2 – Tobacco Growers Versus Merchant and Parliament
- There was conflict between planters and merchants. Many planter gentlemen
committed suicide over huge debt.
- Navigation Acts were considered unfair and caused drops in prices of tobacco.
- Colonists hated the Navigation Acts but didn’t necessarily want to repeal them
because they believed it helped make Britain great.
-
-
By 1774, Nav Acts and manufacturing limitations were getting unbearable. The
wanted unrestrained commerce with the world.
Low money supply was a HUGE problem and caused lots of undervaluing of
goods.
Slave trade: gentry wanted no more but smallholders in the piedmonts wanted
more. There were conflicts over duties on slaves. The Privy Council vetoed
Virginian gentlemen’s efforts to end slave shipments.
Privy council rejected VA gentry on both Indian land and slave trade and sided
with the gentry’s opponents. Both instances increased white VA’s debt.
Boycotts, 1769-74: Non Importation Boycott, 1769 (p75-129)
 The gentry are in a poor financial state in the 1760s.
 They have lost two forms of middleman income: land grants and trade with
smallholders. In addition, they consume more and more luxury goods to maintain
their class status. This pulls them into deep debt with Britain.
 The gentry is angry at Parliament over the Proclamation Line (limits their land),
the Navigation Acts (limits their trade), the Stamp/Townshend/Tea/Intolerable
Acts (limits their civil rights and takes their money).
 As protest boycotts spring up in other colonies, the gentry
start one of their own in 1769. It serves two purposes: allows them to protest
Parliament and bring down their debts.
 Boycott doesn’t work because smallholders are in a better financial place and
refuse to cooperate.
 A second boycott attempt in 1774 works much better thanks to a recession (1772)
that induces smallholders to comply. This boycott is also better supervised
because it is organized inter-colonially through the Continental Association.
 Smallholders are also in debt but are doing better than the gentry between
1766-1770 thanks to four bumper crops of tobacco and less extravagant spending.
 The recession of 1772 hit them hard and they comply with non-importation and
non-exportation associations in 1774.
 They withhold tobacco and believe that the prices will eventually go up. (crop
withholding associations in 1773 begin as local affairs, but failed to raise support
for growing prices. They believed the house of Burgesses should be in charge of
this. When the House of Burgesses failed to do so the small holders and the
gentlemen decided to end exportation of trade
Non-exportation was only in part a protest against the anti- American Coercive Acts that
parliament adopted in 1774, but also very economical as well..
Indian threats were a key reason for the Proclamation Line. Britain didn’t want
to pay for any more costly Indian wars. The Indians will come into play again
this week as the civil war between the British heats up in 1775.
To sum up: There are both broad political/economic reasons for VA discontent
(Proc Line, Nav Acts, new taxes in 1760s, infringement of rights) and specific
local political/economic ones (land grants, fear of slave revolt, recession,
debt).
Part Three: Unintended Consequences
1775-1776 (p131-End)
End of 1774 copies of Continental Association arrive in London
Brits think colonists cut trade with Britain to increase trade with France
Resulted in New England Restraining Act- prohibit all foreign trade
VA economic isolation unforeseen when voting to stop trade w. Britain
With non-exportation plan came decision to close courts in parts of MD and VA
Stopped trying debt cases, commoners less intimidated by gentry
Chapter 5: Free Virginians Versus Slaves and Governor Dunmore
Oct, 1775: Brit navy attacked Hampton, VA
Brought Rev. War to the South
“mulatto” slave, Joseph Harris possibly responsible for battle?
Familiar with Chesapeake, navigated for owner, Henry King
Ran away to join VA’s Lord Dunmore
While sailing, storm washed boat aground, rebels raided, found slaves
Harris escaped with Matthew Squire, Capt. of bigger boat
Rebels demanded Harris be returned, Squire refused
No way to settle peacefully, Squire attacked
Thousands of slaves ran away to work for Brits
Often recaptured and subjected to worse conditions, sometimes got away
Result: motivated white Virginians to declare independence
What happened in 1775 VA to turn boycott into revolution?
Brit army invaded Mass., VA afraid they’d come down there too
Lord Dunmore offered freedom to patriots slaves who joined him
Wouldn’t have mattered except slaves took advantage of the offer
I.
Afro-Virginians usually victims, but as pop. grew, violence against whites increased
Whites feared large-scale slave revolt (frequent plotting during 7 yrs. War)
Feared Indian-slave alliance, tho never materialized
VA feared Britain would use their slaves against them
History of doing so (Francis Drake in the 1570’s Caribbean)
1774, William Draper’s pamphlet, “Proclame Freedom to their Negroes”
James River watershed plot
Four slave conspiracies, may or may not have been connected
Whites terrified
II.
1775, Gov. Dunmore moves VA’s ammunition from center of Williamsburg to warship
Patriots believe he’s weakening them to aid slave rebellion
Gov. Dunmore was in good favor with Patriots
1774 Attacked Indians, pushing them away from VA to Kentucky
Jan. 1775 named daughter “Virginia”
Movement of gunpowder made him villain overnight
Townspeople show up with weapons, allow town council meeting
Leave peaceably, gunpowder stays
Next day Dunmore reveals if any senior Brit is harmed, Dunmore would declare
slaves free and “reduce city of Wmsburg to ashes” (145)
In slave provinces, this tactic was Brit’s best weapon
Leaders in Williamsburg thought the best thing was to not annoy Dunmore
Countryside counties formed independent militias, 600 ppl. headed to Williamsburg
Gentry terrified- just wanted to prevent fight
Dunmore reiterated his threat
Most groups disbanded except John Henry’s
Compromise: gave John Henry $$ for gunpowder, but it stayed on boat
Significance: VA hadn’t tried to fight Governor w. arms since Bacon’s Rebellion
III.
All races in VA thought British were going to free the slaves
Dunmore never gave freedom, but offered quiet refuge, assembled his own militia
1775 crimes by enslaved workers reached record levels
Whites blamed Dunmore
1775 fight at Kemp’s Landing
Outnumbered, Dunmore’s army of former slaves beats patriots
Patriot Commander captured by his own former slaves
Dunmore then proclaimed all slaves who join his regiment as ‘free’
one thousand men, women and children joined
Jefferson references in the Dec. of Ind., blaming Dunmore for Revolution
William Byrd III and Robert Carter of the Executive Council left loyalists
Response to Dunmore, became Patriots
Slaves came to Dunmore looking to fight
Were allowed to after proving themselves as sailors, soldiers, etc.
Black Virginians “helped steer Virginia into the American Revolution” (161)
IV.
Indians also lead colonies toward Revolution
Dunmore organizes trip to convince Indians and Franco-Americans to fight VA
They would all meet up in Alexandria, VA and conquer the Patriots
John Connolly, sent to talk to Indians was captured in MD
Found plan on Connolly, saw they were going to recruit slaves, Indians,
and white Virginians, promising land titles
Point: Indian and slave rebels fueled the Independence movement in VA
Chapter Six: Gentlemen Versus Farmers
Smallholders pushed Gentry toward Independence in two ways
They could only suppress smallholders with new gov’t, which req. revolution
Needed revolution to trade with France
Gentry could satisfy rioters
Gentry could obtain arms
I.
Gentry didn’t think they could control blacks until they unified whites
Independent companies (county militias) didn’t listen to Patriot leaders (Gentry)
3rd VA Convention, July 1775
Principal goal to restrain militias
George Mason suggested combining militias into one army
Too expensive
Instead hire 1000 full-time soldiers and 8000 minutemen paid during emergencies
1000 positions filled quickly, offered poor farmers wages when they couldn’t trade
Couldn’t recruit minutemen (abbreviated as “mm”)
MM were subordinated militia – all the danger, none of the independence
Also, exempt anyone who paid tax on more than three slaves- rich didn’t fight
MM officers paid 11x’s mm wage
Militia members wanted equal treatment, not class subjugation
MM required 20 days initial training and 24 days training per year
No man with a family could leave for that long
Only got paid for time on duty, not encampment
To fix problem, increased standing army 4x’s
Also required men paying taxes on 4+ workers serve time on slave patrol
Biggest rift between officers and soldiers was over Patrick Henry
Led VA army, was soldiers favorite
Continental Congress absorbed most of VA army, but not Henry
VA soldiers demanded discharges, furious
Eventually men stood down, but it was mutinous
Less than a month later, Augusta county group lit ferryhouse where they were stationed
New England Restraining Act resulted in shortages
First shortage was salt, needed in diet and to preserve meat
militias began seizing salt, salt riots
Spring of 1776, salt riots huge problem
VA gentry believed this could all be settled by trading with France
No foreign empire would trade while they were still a colony
II.
By Nov. 1775, Loudoun County farmers decided to purchase imported salt
This was a violation of the Continental Association
If it arrived at all, the salt didn’t arrive in time to prevent disturbances
Richard Henry Lee, prominent landlord, began demanding payment in gold/silver
Cash flow was weak b/c no trade
province decided to print money to support war
Lee didn’t want paper money which would depreciate rapidly
Didn’t expect coin, but “as much paper money as would purchase” equivalent
Hard money/paper money common problem
Washington paid James Cleveland paper money for working land in Ohio
Cleveland became leader of tenant uprising
Significance: tenants joined together, did not beg landlords but judged them
Rent strike allowed for bigger problems to be addressed
11-1 pay difference between officers and soldiers
Blamed Gentry for not ending long war with Dunmore
Needed foreign trade
Sent patriot troops to quell disturbances
Tenants still didn’t pay rent
Big picture:
For smallholders to survive, they needed to trade with Europe
To trade with Europe, Patriots had to first declare war
To declare war, Patriots needed munitions from Europe
Patriots realized they could sway Gentry
To calm masses, must declare Independence
Gentry still afraid Independence would lead to anarchy
If not all out independence, at least a formal government was needed in VA
Part Four: Independence
Chapter 7: Spirit of the People
Small holders and poor whites pushed Gentry toward Revolution directly and indirectly
Indirectly: threat of anarchy, riots, etc. w/o foreign trade
Directly: demanded it
I.
Smallholders believed Independence would give them more power in gov’t.
Couldn’t recreate British gov’t.
No British-type aristocracy in America
Abandoning monarchy and aristocracy was scary to Gentry
Freeholders looking for “simple democracy” or “republic”
Gentry believed that gave too much power to majority voters
Gentry thought it would result in chaos
Scary to Gentry because they lacked fixes hierarchies
Gentry also thought farmers would use power to seize land of rich
Conservative antirepublicans thought Independence meant a gov’t unchecked by Gentry
Believed smallholders were motivated primarily by gov’t power
smallholders knew the 13 colonies new gov’ts would have to be repubs
Thomas Paine’s Common Sense
Common people possessed enough sense to govern themselves
Equated Independence with republicanism for all Americans
II.
Smallholders also dissenters from Established Church, 2/3s white Virginians
Believed they would have greater freedom after Independence
Many leaders of Indep. movement also in movement for religious toleration
Patrick Henry, Thomas Jefferson
Smallholders show their support for Independence in spring, 1776
when electing delegates to the last convention, smallholders signed directions for
delegates to vote for Independence
In Richmond County, seven-time incumbents voted out for “determined men”
Landon Carter writes George Washington about Independence
“every man would the be able to do as he pleased” (201)
Carter shocked at outcome of elections
“Hurray for Independency, Sedition, and Confusion” (202)
Delegates got the message
In may 1776 in Williamsburg delegates instructed VA delegates in Congress to to
propose that the 13 colonies declare Independence
June 29, 1776 convention adopted new constitution and chose Patrick Henry as VA Gov.
Epilogue
Virginia always at forefront of the Revolution
Thesis of book: Independence movement motivated by more than VA Gentry
British Merchants
Grassroots
Indians, farmers, slaves
Thesis proven in documents from House of Burgesses between 1769 and 1775
1769 petition for Kentucky
1772 against the Atlantic Slave trade
Address stating free Virginians would absorb British Empire’s American
expenses if Parliament granted VA the same commercial rights the other Brits enjoyed
Revolution was more than a tax revolt
Conflict among social classes
Indians played large role
Merchants trying to preserve privileges and Indians trying to keep their land
influenced the Privy Council to not comply with the burgesses’ two petitions or their
1775 address.
VA’s debtor class also influenced the movement
1774 import/export boycotts was pretext
However, relief from debts doesn’t explain it all
Import/export had unforeseen ramifications
Virginians began to divide into two camps: loyalists and Dunmore against
Patriots and the House of Bugesses
1775 blacks offer aid to Dunmore for freedom in return
When he accepted, he turned many neutral people against him
Problems with nonimporations made Gentry realize they needed formal gov’t. in VA
Dunmore made reconciliation with Britain impossible
Only option was to revolt
Farmers recognized that Independence meant more freedom for them
Representation
Religion
Until 1774, Gentry wouldn’t denounce Navigation Acts in public
Afraid all Brits would turn against them
1775 when H of B explained problems with Dunmore, blamed slave issue
Truth is they weren’t necessarily thrilled with him before that, nor did they take
his slave threat seriously (though Holton says earlier that Virginians did love Dunmore)
Scholars say Nav. Acts not a problem for colonists in 1763- not true for VA
Chesapeake could be entirely sealed off by Navy easily
Virginians already taxed by monopoly of their trade
Excitement over Dunmore makes more sense considering it happened following slave
revolt rumors
Views of Jefferson as Herald of Freedom and Indian exterminator are both correct
Slaves and Indians didn’t count people who deserved Independence
Virginians radical?
Domestic manufacturing- had supported for more than a century
Tobacco farmers had tried to reduce crop to increase value before
Courts had delayed hearings to shield debtors in the past
Slaves were just as opportunistic during Bacon’s Rebellion
Indians, British Merchants, smallholders, slaves and gentlemen had 2 things in common
Dream of freedom
Recognition of need to band together for success
Relationship between two classes was often influenced by the actions of a third
Strategies by grassroots groups often appropriated then toned down by elites
How Revolution Affected Each Group
Indians
Indians were one of worst victims of the revolution
Thomas Jefferson advocated “extermination”
One of VA’s largest sources of income: sale of Indian land
Debtors
Closing of courts and outbreak of war cleared their debts
1785 recession, farmers lost their land
Got land back by burning their way out of prison, stealing land
1780’s saw huge domestic conflicts
Gentlemen
Move toward democracy surprisingly limited
Gentry chose governor
Justices served for life
No secret ballot
No elimination of property qualification for voting
Free blacks and slaves
Brits moved some to Nova Scotia, Sierra Leone as free men
Between 1782 and 1806 pop. of free blacks doubled in VA
Those who weren’t freed were in worse situations than before
Made to fight in war, most material deprivation and loss of family
Ability to expand meant slaves moved away from families
Gentry was the clearest victor
Craton, “Jamaica, 1760: Tacky’s Revolt”
- slave revolt in Jamaica could have been as widespread as the Haitian revolution
- relative calm, large expansion of sugar plantations, distraction of 7 yrs war set
stage for revolt
-
-
led by Tacky, spearheaded by Akan-speaking Coromantees
goal was to evict whites, divide Jamaica into small states
whites thought rebels were working with maroons, but this was not the case;
maroons had no real allegiance to whites, though – acted on self interest
revolt started on Easter when slaves seized a fort and took weapons
attacked plantations and rounded up recruits
a small troop tried to attack them but was worn down by guerilla tactics of rebels
Lt. Gov. alerted, regulars and militia dispatched
Even regulars not prepared for guerilla warfare, tide in favor of rebels early
Maroons sent to help, but they were more concerned with bounty than with
defeating rebels
Word of rebellion spread, slave uprisings occurred all over island
Thomas Thistlewood had one of the few remaining firsthand journals of the revolt
Thistlewood a slave owner and sees revolt spreading all around him, worried
about a revolt from his own slaves but forced to depend on them
The 2nd major battle of revolt put rebels on defensive but didn’t end the revolt
It was the maroons who defeated Tacky’s main band, killed him, beheaded him
and took his head to be displayed (Tacky’s followers stole it to keep it from being
displayed)
Losing Tacky’s leadership (not the tactics of the whites) led to downfall of
rebellion
Few rebels surrendered, some returned to masters as if nothing happened
Rebellion announced over in Oct. 1761, damages amounted to millions in current
dollars
Rebellion led to tightening of restrictions on slaves, fortification of island
Still some smaller revolts after that in future years
As more slaves became creoles and fewer were directly from Africa, African
stage of revolt ended
Fick, “Slave Resistance”
 Slaves some times committed suicide to escape slavery (the Ibos in particular)
o On slave ships and at the plantations
o Sometimes calculated suicides, with the intention of infliction serious
economic damage on their masters plantations
o Slave women often used abortion and infanticide as a form of resistance
 Slave revolts another form of resistance
o Armed revolts occurred more frequently aboard slave ships than the
colonies- but these were often unorganized
o Organized revolts forming out of slave society were more dangerous to
white planters
o Makandal conspiracy in 1757 was only seriously organized slave revolt in
Saint Domingue before the revolution in 1791
 Marronage
o Product of the will of slaves to become free persons- not just horrendous
living conditions
o Most maroons were men, 15% women
o Santo Domingo- maroon colony in Saint Domingue; frequent refuge for
the field slave. Bahoruco mountains also frequent destination, birth of
maroon colonies.
o 1785- French granted independence to Maroons
o Marechaussée- created to hunt down and capture fugitive slaves,
comprised of affranchise (formers slaves, mulattos)
o Black Code 1685- first comprehensive legislation dealing with marronage.
Slaves of different plantations were forbidden to assemble for any reason,
to carry any sort of weapon without pass from master, harsh punishments
for fugitive slaves
o Predominately involved African born, non- creole slaves
o Colonial born slaves used familiarity with plantation life, high positions,
ability to read or write, and other tricks to gain freedom
 Once slaves got far enough away from plantation, virtually
impossible to track down. In a few years, they would be accepted
as free
o Marronage not exclusive to Saint Domingue- found in other colonies. But
in other colonies, began to be replaced more frequently by slave revolts.
Persisted in Saint Domingue.
o Existence of maroons offered an alternative to slaves- provided hope.
Disrupted the order of slave plantations.
o Maroons were forbidden from helping slaves escape however- works both
ways.
o Maroons not distinctly separate from slave system- very much an integral
part
o Voodoo- form of cultural protest against slavery; mode of resistance.
Preserved African culture. Slave leaders often emerged from this tradition.
Facilitated secret meetings, provided a linkage system and network of
slaves
o Congolese- predominant nation among maroons
o Francois Makandal- revolutionary voodoo maroon leader. Head of vast,
organized slave revolt in Saint Domingue in the 1750’s. Goal was to
overthrow white regime. Eventually unsuccessful.
o Slaves used poison to kill and threaten white plantation owners
 Created a state of paranoia in the white planter society
 Incentive to kill masters for economic reasons (poisoning of other
slaves), as well as opportunity to become free.
o Makandal’s conspiracy was a premature attempt at revolution
 Part of a larger epidemic
o More outright forms of revolt, as opposed to poison and voodoo began to
gradually prevail.
o The French revolution would finally provide the opportunity for the major
revolt.
Maier, “The Stamp Act Riots and Ordered Resistance”
Maier, “The Making of an American Revolution, 1772-1776”
- Starting in 1772, colonists were still “emotionally and intellectually unprepared
for war and a potential withdrawal from the empire”
o Hope that independence could be averted; “wait and see” game with
British
 Many not ready for use of force; preferred economic coercion
(nonimportation/exportation)
o Constant, strategic communication between colonists and their supporters
in the UK
o Colonists were molding a British revolution; not yet an American one
- Colonists had hope for Lord Dartmouth (new Sec of State for American affairs);
then new parliament; then the king (George III); then British people. All fail to
support the colonists.
- Intolerable Acts – 1774
o Close port of Boston
o Disallow trying of British officials in American courts
o Showed the King was despotic too, for those who thought just parliament
was bad
- The British people vis a vis the colonists
o No possibility of insurrection in Britain
o Colonists previously hated parliament and king; now begin to hate the
people
o Changes the nature of rebellion; colonists hate all things British  made
way for American national identity
- America emerges from Revolution as…
o “Noble” – the last bastion of true freedom
o Idea that if you’re part of the British Empire, you are enslaved
Armitage, “The Declaration of Independence and International Law”
This essay contains four main parts. The first is where he examines what the declaration
actually was intended to do. The second is an examination of the early reaction to the
declaration in Europe. The third part examines the context of its creation and how shifts
in thinking about natural law and positive law were helping to shape notions of
international law. Finally he examines how the declaration was not a document regarding
the ideal relationship between individuals and government but rather autonomy of the
American colonies.
He argues that the declaration has two premises and two proofs. The first premise is the
conditions that are necessary for separation must be declared. The second is certain
violations of principle justify separation. The first proof is evidence of such violations.
The second is that the government has not redressed these violations.
He argues that the second premise and its discussion of inalienable truths is most studied
and referred to but is in fact the minor premise.
He argues that the necessity of a declaration was due to international and diplomatic
factor. And that the purpose of the declaration was not so much a discussion of rights but
an attempt to establish America as a state in order to make allegiances with European
powers more legitimate. He supports this notion by saying that European powers were
reluctant to align themselves with people who still considered them to be British subjects.
He cites revolutionary thinkers such as Thomas Paine desire for a declaration of
independence in order to allow commercial and political alliances with foreign nations.
He also stresses the delegates desire to adhere to the Law of Nations as a reason that the
declaration was intended primarily for a foreign audience.
However the author points out how the declaration upon its publication in Europe was
met with either anger as it did in Britain or silence as it did in continental Europe. British
response was to insist that declaration did not make the American Colonies a state and
that its inhabitants were subjects engaged in rebellion.
He also argues that the declaration was a compromise of the debate between natural and
positive law. Natural law being god given and consisting of certain rights. While positive
law consisted of institutions of government that intended to maintain law and protect
rights. The emphasis on inalienable rights and Natural Law espoused in the Declaration
was in decline in Europe during this period. But the declaration also declares America’s
right to participate in the positivist international law and other institutions of states.
Finally he argues that the American declaration of independence was unique in its
purpose was to request a place in the international order.
Bailyn, To Begin the World Anew
The Founding Fathers’ main concern was that their plan would fail. The circumstances
that accounted for their creative imagination was their position on the outskirts of society.
Bailyn compares them socially to the outsiders of metropolitan art; they were provincial.
Compared to the British aristocracy, the American founding fathers were much
less wealthy and much less academically stimulated. They were less interested in the
frills of the rich life and more in the practicality of running the colonies. *criticism:
Bailyn does not question the lack of money here. He attributes it to different values, but
it must be noted that a) in a society where wealth is based on years of establishment of
property, the colonies were too new to have much emphasis on tradition. And b)the
outcasts of British society were sent to America and to the colonies in general. Though
many had been religiously persecuted, their predecessors had not chosen originally to go
there because of different intellectual values.
He finally emphasizes that the founding fathers believed strongly in the unique
American moral standings of politics. The British government was renowned for its
corrupt practices.
Chapter 2 – Jefferson and the Ambiguities of Freedom
Jefferson’s reputation: Jefferson was both vilified and glorified even in his own time.
Bailyn quotes John, John Quincy, and Henry Adams in their criticism of Jefferson over
three generations.
 Jefferson drafted the Declaration of Independence.
He is possibly most well-known for his inconsistencies:
 He called for rebellion against oppressive conditions, but declined to assist the
Haitians in their revolution. (Again, to criticize Bailyn: why would Jefferson
incite slave rebellion when American colonists themselves were in a
precarious position concerning slavery?)
 He hated slavery, but only freed a few slaves in his will and at first opposed
the expansion of slavery but then allowed it into the ‘Old Northwest’ and in
Missouri. Bailyn cites that he is often criticized for believing that all men are
created equal, but did not do much in the cessation of slavery. *Again, a
critical look. There are 2 possibilities to consider: Jefferson could have been
ahead of his times and really did believe in the equality of all men, but knew
that politically he could not push for independence and simultaneously the
emancipation of slaves and be taken seriously by his peers; or, he was simply
a man of his times in the regard that he, like everyone else, did believe that all
men were equal, only that slaves were not men.
 At first he advocated a completely free press, but when he realized that the
press could promulgate its own falsehoods, he advocated for censuring the
press.
 At first he believed that the Constitution would create something like a
monarchy, i.e. if the president could be re-elected then he would never be
replaced, but was eventually convinced by Madison that it would indeed
secure the rights of the people.
 Was initially staunchly opposed to party politics, but could find no way
around them but to have a party of his own.
Despite these inconsistencies (sorry to inject my opinion so much, but these
‘inconsistencies’ are what I believe leadership and political maneuvering consist of.
Changing one’s mind and ADAPting are necessary to one’s political and personal
survival.), he was lauded for continually fighting against poverty, and most importantly,
he was in constant fear that the revolution would fail and he did everything in his power
to keep it from doing so.
Mackesy – “The World War, 1778”
Ch 7 - “Morrow of Saratoga”
- Saratoga as THE turning point of the Revolutionary War
- 2 Commanders-in-Chief for British resign: Gen. Carleton and Gen. Howe
- Carleton resigns after heated disagreements with Germain
- Howe also had personal disagreements with Germain
- Howe resigned because of Saratoga defeat, he “lost the confidence of his best
officers”
- Burgoyne sends a letter that makes everyone in government question the war,
King wants an inquiry but nothing happens
-
Lord North hates the war, his cabinet becomes ineffective
Right after loss at Saratoga, hopes of a decisive British victory ended
Hope that war weariness would force patriots to settle
New plan by cabinet: to blockade US coast, back off of land war
Orders sent to Clinton to withdraw from Philly, prepare to invade GA and SC the
next yr
- Some in England didn’t want to re-conquer N. England
- belief that NE would buy British goods anyway, so give up NE: Hudson River
should be the boundary of the empire in north
- South had slave problems, more loyalists, more dependence on British markets
- British sent a secret envoy to meet with the Americans, Americans used this to
play off French and encourage them to ally themselves with US
Ch 8 - “The Naval Mobilisation”
- Middleton as Lord Sandwich’s main critic
- Naval Board as an inflexible bureaucratic entity
- British navy a leftover from 7 years war, falling apart under Sandwich
- British tried to store up timber and build more stockyards, but fell behind and had
low quality timber
- Lord North wanted to balance budget, so it came out of the naval budget
- France strengthening its navy, British unable to modernize with Revolution going
on
- Sandwich thought that British would have to fight a defensive naval war because
of the substandard navy
- Eventually, government did agree to increase number of ships
- Sandwich says that he will resign if British navy cannot hang with French navy
- French could mobilize sailors much faster than British
- Many sailors died because of disease; new health measures lessened sailor deaths
Ch 9 - “War Plans and Preparation”
- Lord Amherst becomes a Commander in Chief
- The W. Indies were viewed as far more important than mainland colonies –
economically and strategically
- Offensively attacking the French West Indies was the best defense (as opposed to
scattering units around the British Caribbean)
- Peace Commission ordered to make sweeping offers of conciliation to Congress
to get them out of the war
- Commissioners sail for America, but don’t know that the British gave up Philly
and NYC in the meantime, angered commissioners
Ch 10 - “The Command of the Seas”
- France decided against invading British mainland directly for fear of international
repercussions
- Decided to fight them abroad, take valuable territories
- British considered a blockade of French coast but decided against it (not enough
ships)
- Appearance that the British would have to engage French in decisive naval battle
- British decide to send a naval fleet to America to fight French
- Keppel appointed head of the Channel Fleet
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Keppel comes in to speak with leaders, immediately ordered back out to sea to
defend channel
- Channel Fleet fight French fleet in English Channel, a draw but kept French from
invading British isles
Ch 11 – “Crisis in America”
- Howe refused to attack Washington in Valley Forge
- Howe replaced by Henry Clinton (who would be blamed for losing the American
campaign)
- Large amt of Clinton’s troops sent away to W. Indies, Clinton had to leave Philly
- After a stalemate, fighting in the northern theater would end
- Peace Commission makes offers of everything short of independence, America
refuses
- Clinton believed Canadian holdings were safe, told to hold NYC
- British suffered from a lack of provisions, food
Ch 12 – “The Southern Offensives”
- scattered nature of islands made them difficult to defend; navy the primary
defensive force
- planters didn’t want to provide for their own defense (a direct contradiction to
O’Shaughnessy)
- British take offensive in naval defense of islands, French lose a chance to attack
and destroy a weak British fleet
- Florida is an ignored front that all powers saw as a prize
- Pushing through Florida in a campaign to take GA
- The plan to seize GA was the beginning of the non-defensive British campaign in
Southern America
Lewis, “’Of Every Age Sex & Condition’: The Representation of Women in the
Constitution”
 Gender-Neutral language of the Constitution – To encompass women or not?
 Believes it does include women, although the role set out for them is different
than the roles set aside for most men
 Pennsylvania’s James Wilson, Articles of Confederation, original wording for
how representation in the Lower House (later House of Representatives) would be
“in proportion to the whole number of white and other free Citizens and
inhabitants of every age, sex & condition including those bound to servitude for a
term of years and 3/5 of all other persons not comprehended in the foregoing
description, except Indians not paying taxes, in each state”
 Committee of Style compressed Wilson’s words “of every age, sex & condition”
to “free persons” … this would make one assume they thought the meaning had
not changed.
 Many other revisions continued to use “free persons”
 Significant, since none of the new sate constitutions enacted at the time numbered
women and children
 But at the time there is no record of Wilson’s additional language about sex being
contested, it is not clear what he and the other delegates intended.
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At the same time, representation about slavery was being debated at the
Convention – the issue of slavery was much more highly contested Wilson’s 3/5s
idea, or that property was the way to measure representation
Essentially, the liberals of the time considered the new nation in expansive terms
saying that every free person who inhabited was in fact a citizen, deserving
protection and representation in government.
In this context, women, who were explicitly represented but who were just as
explicitly not permitted to represent themselves became sort of a touchstone of the
modern, liberal state.
By construing women as interested citizens incapable of representing themselves,
liberalism provided a justification for the state: protecting those who could not
protect themselves.
Wilson’s theory set out in his “Lectures on Law” – believed “Government was
instituted for the happiness of society” and explained that women were there to
help form the domestic society “the better part” and not the government. – that
was too masculine and couldn’t be attempted by women without jeopardizing
their femininity – which was important for society.
Apparently women were seen as the very object of government – which explains
why they would need representation, although wouldn’t have any place within the
government itself due to their femininity
The legal existence of the wife is consolidated into that of the husband.
If peace and harmony were to be found it would be within marriage – therefore,
the idea that two persons would function as one became the cornerstone of society
However, the creators of new national and state governments barely discussed the
issue of female citizenship – even in cases like Wilson’s, where they tried to
expand the sphere of women’s civil liberties, the Framers offered very little
guidance about how their rights should be defined or enforced.
This worked for a while, until the similarity to their situation with free blacks
became a problem, further defining the inequalities of the free blacks.
Essentially, female citizenship had been defined in relationship to that of blacks,
both slave and free
Started off constituting society, enjoying its rights and protection – gradually
however, women came to stand for those who were members of a society who did
not enjoy political rights while the free black population represented the reverse
of that.
This situation widened the gap that had been closing between politics and society
Lewis leaves you with the statement that gender had been used to construct the
political and social practices of race, and race to construct the practices of
gender… the fleeting vision of a wide open public sphere open to “persons of
every age, sex, and condition” faded, leaving barely a trace
Finkelman, “Slavery and the Constitutional Convention: Making a Covenant with Death”
- The debate over the Constitution and its inclusion of slavery was more about
North and South power struggles and maintaining a union than about the principle
of slavery. The North was intent upon maintaining a Union and offered many proslavery concessions.
morals sacrificed for the sake of maintaining that union – even anti-slavery
northerners were willing to allow the continuation of slavery
- The three-fifths clause in Article 1 Section 2, counted slaves as three-fifths of a
person in determining house representation.
– Counting slaves as zero would have better for the slaves and for the north
(voting power)
– The debate was highly controversial and was not completely resolved for
months.
- There are five places in the Constitution that, Finkelman argues "explicitly
sanction" slavery, even though the word slave is only used once in the document
(in a later amendment abolishing slavery)
– three-fifths
– slave importation clause
– capitation (taxes had to take into account slaves as three-fifths)
– fugitive slave clause, and the prohibition of any amendment of the slave
– importation capitation clause before 1808.
Implicit References to slavery can be found throughout the document
“Insurrection Clause”: Could be about Shea’s rebellion, which was
happening at the same time as the Constitutional Convention
3/5 clause: also determines representation for the electoral college,
which means that whites in slave states have heightened power in
presidential elections
75% of slaves needed to ratify the constitution – slave states could
withhold their approval and hold a “perpetual veto” against new clauses
(S. Carolina, Georgia)
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**IMPORTANT: Know that the three fifths clause was in article 1, section two of the
constitution. My tf made sure to stress this in class when we went over this reading. **
Merrell, “Declarations of Independence: Indian-White Relations in the New Nation”
 While all of America cheered after Great Britain surrendered, the Indians were
not even mentioned in the peace treaty that ceded all of their land to the
conquerors.
 Many had fought for the British during the war lured by gifts and promises of
protection – the victors were unable to forget this after the war was over
 These feelings ran so deep that it didn’t even matter what side the Indians had
fought on.
 Some treaties were thrown together, other states like Georgia, just took Indian
land saying it was compensations for the Indians sins
 They said that virtue of the Treaty of Paris they owned all land east of the
Mississippi since Indians had been a British Ally
 Informal war – more than a hatred of Indians and a desire for revenge but also a
desire to continue defeating these native nations just because they could – after
all, they had just defeated the most powerful nation on earth
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However, the Indians refused to just surrender or join the new American culture
or society – proved to be a more difficult adversary, even using allies like the
Spanish in Florida and the British in Canada
For a long while, America’s claim to their land was in paper only
US tried a different approach – give them the “blessings of civilization” –
basically conversion rather than coercion
Eventually, a combination of all the different tactics and the dislocation of so
many of them paid off for the Americans and caused a huge price for the Indians
Hunting songs became no longer meaningful for the Cherokee, the tribal elders
began to feel obsolete, a vast knowledge of ancient lore seemed irrelevant to
future generations, yearly ceremonies fell from 6 to 2, and eve those were more
like going through the motions, not a solemn, in the Six Nations, suicide rates
skyrocketed, drunkenness was an epidemic
Made worse for the Indians because many began to embrace white ways to
combat despair
Several rallies were made by various tribes who came together around certain
prophets who gave them new hope, vigor, and hate, although ultimately these
resurgent where stopped as well the more civilization grew and spread
Luckily, the Indians avoided extinction altogether, as the American could never
bring themselves to completely follow through with it – in fact, many were
ashamed with their past actions
This window allowed for those few who remained to actually file legal action
based upon our own declaration of independence and constitution – their sheer
determinations to save their heritage and remain “Indians Still” could be
considered a triumph with all that occurred between the Treaty of Paris and The
Trail of Tears
O’Shaughnessy, An Empire Divided
Preface
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book is political in focus
has three main goals:
o concerned with the reaction of the British West Indies to the American
Revolution and aims to explain why the island colonies did not support the
mainland revolt
o the influence of the Islands on British colonial policy towards North
America and the role the Islands played in events that caused the
American Revolution. Also, this book aims to make more explicit their
important in military affairs during the Revolutionary War
o implications of division of British America for the West Indies
Why didn’t the Islands revolt?
o Planter absenteeism
o Deeper economic and cultural links with Britain
o Greater strategic vulnerability (reliance on British military)
o Greater slave population numerically
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the Islands white colonist were more loyal to the British Empire because of
fundamental differences between the islands and the mainland colonies not
because of a threat from military coercion or the physical impracticality of revolt
Part I
Chapter One: British Sojourners
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(p4) British West Indian colonists had no nationalistic ties to the West Indies, they
remained nationalistic to Britain
o had strong cultural ties to Britain that restrained the formation of a
nationalistic Creole consciousness
o (p5-6) planters were absent, temporary residents. As a result, there was no
infrastructure, schools, good architecture etc.
(p7) Pitman’s theory: Whites in the BWI were from a capitalist class, connected
to landed gentry, Anglicans, agreed with rural aristocracy whereas N. American
whites were nonconformist, with democratic and republican ideas and this is why
the BWI were more loyal to the British Empire
O’Shaughnessy: Pitman wrong. The Chesapeake settlers were different from
New England settlers and very similar to the BWI colonists. There were other
factors involved:
o High mortality rates among Whites (malaria and yellow fever prevalent),
1/3 of whites died within their first 3 years on the islands
o Blacks less susceptible to certain diseases
o (p8-9) Many more Blacks than Whites
 From 1673 – 1774: 22:1 black:white ratio
 Only South Carolina had about same proportions
o Fear of Black rebellions increased need for British military assistance in
the BWI. (p31) Threat from neighboring European powers also increased
need for British military assistance.
o (p9-10) Because of large Black population, more contact between Whites
and Blacks. Therefore, BWI whites felt need to identify more strongly
with Britain in order to remove themselves from “blackness”.
o (p10-11) Planters made more money on the islands than the mainland
which made it possible for them to live in Britain, educate their children
there etc. Primogeniture (having oldest son inherent an entire estate as
opposed to splitting it up amongst heirs) also made it easier for BWI
colonists to maintain large amounts of money, and therefore live and be
educated in Britain. A British education became necessary for professional
work in the West Indies.
 (p20) between 1698-1752 twice as many BWI kids were in school
in Britain than N. American kids.
 (p21) no colleges in the BWI, 9 colleges in the 13 colonies
o (p15) BWI has most powerful colonial lobby in London
 all these factors explain BWI loyalty to Britain
Chapter Two: Black Majorities
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BWI: welcomed British army because feared slave revolt
N. America: resented British military presence because thought was a conspiracy
(p36) BWI colonists had legitimate fear of slave revolts and had greater
occurrence of revolts because:
o More slaves and absentee planters in BWI than in NA
o More African-born slaves in BWI than in NA
o (p41-43) Maroon communities (communities of freed/runaway slaves)
o (p38) Example: Jamaica revolts in 1760s
The fear of slave revolts brought BWI colonists closer to British by making them
rely on British military protection
o (p43) Before 1730s, didn’t want Br. Army but the growing maroon
communities and slave revolts created the need
o Barbados was under special circumstances because it had a lower
black/white ratio (4:1) and had a local army but even they requested
British assistance in 1816 after several slave revolts.
Chapter 3: The Sugar Islands
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Sugar exportation key to islands’ economy
BWI relied on Britain for sugar exportation
o BWI sugar more expensive than French West Indies’ sugar so no one else
wants to but BWI sugar. To help, Britain makes it illegal for Britain and
it’s colonies to buy French sugar
o American colonies defy law and but French sugar anyway
o  (p65) increases tension between islands and mainland leading to (p63)
Molasses Act of 1733 and stricter enforcement of trade laws
o (p64, 67) Also, Sugar Act in 1764 and Free Port Act increases tension
(p69, 71) Only time BWI intervene in NA/British dispute is when it’s in their own
self-interest
o BWI dependent on NA food imports and don’t want NA to separate from
Britain cause would loose their source of food
Sugar made BWI more dependent on Britain while it forced mainland colonies
away from Britain
Part II
Chapter Four: Sons of Liberty
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(p81) In the 1760s, the BWI and NA diverge significantly in their response to
British legislation
(p82) Stamp Act in 1765, then again in 1766 followed by Declaratory Act
o (p85) affected BWI more but N. Americans objected more
o only Islands to resist the Stamp Acts were the Leeward Islands who were
also the most dependent on N. American food imports
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Why did the BWI object less than the NAs?
o Difference between BWI and NA reactions: BWI much more focused on
impracticality of Stamp Act while NA challenged constitutionality of
Acts. (p102-3) BWI didn’t even realize that they had a constitutional right
to cettain things.
o (p106-7) In general, the BWI were less effected by imperial rule because
they were given preferential treatment
Slaves mounted the fiercest resistance in the BWI during the 1760s-70s.
Chapter Five: Winning the Initiative
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(p109) All the British colonies formed assemblies which challenged British
Imperial rule but in different ways:
o prerogative (in the case of BWI) vs. revolutionary struggle and liberty (in
NA)
(p114-5) Jamaican assembly openly confronted the Imperial government and
opposed wishes of king and won
But, BWI assemblies similar to early Britain in 1600s in that they were not trying
to start a revolution, just trying to gain what was rightfully theirs while
maintaining respect for Imperial authority
(p128) BWI were not supportive of legislation leading to revolution
(p131) BWI didn’t contend the right of the Parliament while NA claimed to be
independent of the Parliament
(p133) In the BWI, lots of disenfranchisement. Only 7% of population
represented in assemblies. Assemblies = oligarchy.