...think. However, even given the difficulty of this task I have in the end chosen three men, that without, this country may very well have shaped up much differently than the country that we have come to know to this day. The three men of my choice are John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and Benjamin Franklin. The reason for my decision on these three individuals is because they all played crucial roles in the formation of our great country and without their key insight and the driving force that they brought it could have turned out much differently. Each holds a very important place during this time in history which will be more fully understood and unveiled in the coming pages. To better understand these roles, and these men as a whole I believe it best to look at each individually to see what brought them to be such important figures in history and how it was that their fates intertwined. John Adams was born on October 30, 1735 in the Massachusetts Bay Colony of Braintree which is now known as Quincy (Bio, 2013). John was a direct descendent of Puritan colonists whose father was John Adams Sr. His father wore many hats which included being a farmer, a Congregationalist deacon, and a town councilman. Coming from these roots John Jr.’s studies started out of very humble means by...
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...Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation was written by Joseph J. Ellis and published by Vintage Books in February 2002. According to josephellishistorian.com and mtholyoke.edu, Joseph J. Ellis is a very accomplished historian, author, and professor, currently teaching in the Leadership Studies Program at Williams College. He studied at Yale University (Ph.D., M.Phil., M.A.) and College of William and Mary (B.A.). Specializing in the history of the American Revolution, Presidents and the roots of American foreign policy. His works include American Sphinx, His Excellency: George Washington and Revolutionary Summer: The Birth of American Independence. As well as essays and book reviews that appear in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Chicago Tribune, The Los Angeles Times, The New Republic, and The New Yorker. Founding Brothers is a Pulitzer Prize winning book that discusses the prominent men in the political atmosphere of America after the Constitutional Convention and the issues that they faced. The book starts off with the infamous duel between Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton on July 11, 1804. The outcome of this duel is that Burr shoots Hamilton and...
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... I do not want to leave,” cried John Hancock. “You must. It is the only way you will be able to become something in Boston or anywhere else,” his mother said sadly. As he sat in the back of the small carriage looking back he tried not to cry as he remembered what had happened in the last couple of sad days. John, only seven at the time, was so sad when his father died. He was sent to live with his wealthy uncle. He was a merchant that supplied people in many of the colonies as well as some in England. As he got older Christian values were strongly taught in addition to his study at the Boston Latin School. After finishing at Harvard in 1754 he continued to help his uncle and took over his company upon his death. Being one of...
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...taxes that prompted her American colonists to resist, and then to reject, imperial rule. Having declared independence and defeated the British, American patriots then drafted the constitution that remains the law of the land to this day. With George Washington's inauguration as president in 1789, the story has a happy ending and the curtain comes down. This time-honored script renders the road from colonies to nation clear, smooth, and straight, with familiar landmarks along the way, from Boston's Massacre and Tea Party through Lexington and Concord, then on to Bunker Hill and Yorktown before reaching its destination: Philadelphia in 1787, where the Founders invented a government worthy of America's greatness. Those Founders are equally familiar. Washington and Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin and James Madison, Sam and John Adams, Patrick Henry and Alexander Hamilton: in the popular mind this band of worthies, more marble monuments than mere mortals, guides America towards its grand destiny with a sure and steady hand. "[F]or the vast majority of contemporary Americans," writes historian Joseph Ellis, the birth of this nation is shrouded by "a golden haze or halo."(1) So easy, so tame, so much "a land of foregone conclusions" does America's Revolution appear that we tend to honor and ignore it rather than study it. In 1976, the 200th birthday of the Declaration of Independence, "every sidewalk survey show[ed] the great majority of Americans unwilling to sign [the] Declaration...
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...The American Revolutionary War Consider the words of Thomas Pain when he wrote “These are the times that try men’s souls: The summer solider and the sunshine patriot will, in the crisis, shrinks from the service of his country: but he that stands it NOW deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.” The Independence war all started because of tyranny and major British taxation. The Boston Tea Party, the Battle of Bunker Hill, and the outcome of the war were just some the major stances colonists took to a take stand against Great Britain to make the 13 colonies independent. These are the words of a true patriot. He has risked his life to severe this country. He was one of many soldiers in the War of Independence. The Independence War...
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...that they helped build would stand for the test of time. However, the author, Joseph Ellis, tries to give the reader a better understanding of the founders, that they are more than just men. They are more than white people that believed in white superiority. Instead, they are men that understood the problems that the country was facing after independence from the United Kingdom by a war. They fought each other tooth and nail over things that they believed needed to be done for the country or else this new republic will fall, like the Roman Republic. Nevertheless, they met each other to form political compromises that would build the strength and position of the new republic. Theses Compromises help settle many disputes that had threated to divide the new nation in half. Even though, it deals with issues that at the time should not be spoken, like slavery. They understood that the world was watching them and was waiting for what...
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...have a curious thought of how Americans built their society. In this reading the reader will understand a historic timeline from 1780-1850. Learning the important information during certain years and how they overcome each event. The Agricultural Revolution of Europe started in the 1700’s; it was widely spread throughout Europe and America by the 1800’s. The results of the revolution, was the farming processes became more efficient, and productive due to several inventions, and discoveries. The Agricultural processes became faster, and less manpower is required in the field, as a result the population from the countryside had no means of supporting themselves. They were forced to move into the urban cities in search of factory jobs. The Industrial Revolution began in Great Britain during the 1700s. The term Industrial Revolution refers both to the changes that occurred and to the period itself. During the 1700s and early 1800s, great changes took place in the lives and labor of people in several parts of the world. These changes resulted from the development of industrialization and it started spreading to other parts of Europe and to North America in the early 1800s. By the mid-1800s, industrialization had become widespread in Western Europe and the northeastern United States. America Transformed In 1781 Peace Commission occurred and what it meant was Congress appoints a Peace Commission comprised of Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, John Jay, and Henry Laurens. The...
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...Nash argues that “we cannot capture the life and soul of the Revolution without paying close attention to the wartime experiences and agendas for change that engrossed backcountry farmers, urban craftsmen, deep blue mariners, female camp followers and food rioters”(Nash 123). A commonly overlooked part of the American revolution was the women; Abigail Adams wrote to her husband saying “I desire you would Remember the Ladies, and be more generous and favourable to them than your ancestors. ” (Abigail to John). Abigail Adams wanted to remove the “unlimited power”(Nash 128) that husbands had over their wives. Naturally, Adams also supported the abolition of slavery and after she reported on the Boston slaves trying to gain their freedom “slaves in Bristol and Worcester counties petitioned the local committees of correspondence for assistance ‘in obtaining their freedom’”(Nash 129). In Washington Crossing the Delaware the artist depicts Washington on a boat with a black person, a Native American, and possibly a woman (Leutze). This painting shows what America should be, everyone should be on the same level whether you were a woman, slave, or the future president of the United States. Women and slaves were not fighting for completely...
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...larger-than-life” folk hero. For this reason, he appeared in many books and a series of almanacs. Davy was a loving father, son, and husband. Even though he did not have much success as a congressman, he still had an impact in the wars. Davy was born on August 17, 1786, in East Tennessee around the Nolichucky River. He was the fifth child out of nine. His mother was Rebecca and his father was John Crockett....
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...To The Shores of Tripoli Muslim foes. Kidnappings. How the Barbary Wars foreshadowed things to come By CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS Within days of his March 1801 inauguration as the third President of the United States, Thomas Jefferson ordered a naval and military expedition to North Africa, without the authorization of Congress, to put down regimes involved in slavery and piracy. The war was the first in which the U.S. flag was carried and planted overseas; it saw the baptism by fire of the U.S. Marine Corps—whose anthem boasts of action on "the shores of Tripoli"—and it prefigured later struggles with both terrorism and jihad. The Barbary States of North Africa—Algiers, Tunis, Morocco and Tripoli (today's Libya)—had for centuries sustained themselves by preying on the maritime commerce of others. Income was raised by direct theft, the extortion of bribes or "protection" and the capture of crews and passengers to be used as slaves. The historian Robert Davis, in his book Christian Slaves, Muslim Masters: White Slavery in the Mediterranean, the Barbary Coast and Italy, 1500-1800, estimates that as many as 1.25 million Europeans and Americans were enslaved. The Barbary raiders—so called because they were partly of Berber origin—struck as far north as England and Ireland. It appears, for example, that almost every inhabitant of the Irish village of Baltimore was carried off in 1631. Samuel Pepys and Daniel Defoe...
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...World to judge it in the clear sunshine. -General William Maxwell to Adam Stephen, April 10, 17771 On New Year’s Day in 1777, Robert Morris sent George Washington a letter that rings strangely in a modern ear. “The year 1776 is over,” Morris wrote. “I am heartily glad of it and hope you nor America will ever be plagued with such another.” Washington shared that feeling, which was very far from our own. We celebrate 1776 as the most glorious year in American history. They remembered it as an agony, especially the “dark days” of autumn.2 Americans have known many dark days, from the starving times in early settlements to the attack on the World Trade Center. These were the testing times and the pivotal moments of our history. It was that way in 1776, after the decision for independence and the military disasters in New York. In early December, British commanders believed that they were very close to ending the rebellion, and American leaders feared that they might be right. Then came a reversal of fortune, and three months later the mood had changed on both sides. By the spring of 1777, many British officers had concluded that they could never win the war. At the same time, Americans recovered from their despair and were confident that they would not be defeated. That double transformation was truly a turning point in the war. 363 ~ Reprise: A Web of Contingency in History We have seen how it happened: not in a single event, or even a chain of events, but...
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...Chapter 7: The Rise of Manufacturing and the Age of Jackson (1820–1845) THE GROWTH OF THE FACTORY Economic growth was a key component of Henry Clay’s American System, and in the aftermath of the War of 1812, measures were taken to expand American industry. American industries were protected by the Tariff of 1816, which raised import tariffs by 25 percent. At the same time state governments began improving road, river, and canal transportation systems. Before 1820 almost all products made in America were completed using a system borrowed from Europe called the putting-out system. Under this system merchants would buy the raw materials, recruit dozens, or in some case hundreds, of farm families to do the work, and then sell the finished product. Many shoes in New England were made in this manner; women and children would make part of the shoe, which would be finished by experienced shoemakers. Beginning in the late 1780s the textile industry started to use power-driven machines and interchangeable parts. All power in these early factories came from water, so the early factories all were located along rivers. Most were located in New England or the Middle states. In the 1790s factories like those in Lowell, Massachusetts, began to weave cotton imported from the south. With the introduction of the cotton gin in the same decade, more cotton became available, and production boomed. By 1840 the textile industry employed nearly 75,000 workers, with almost half of...
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...July The Declaration of Independence We celebrate American Independence Day on the Fourth of July every year. We think of July 4, 1776, as a day that represents the Declaration of Independence and the birth of the United States of America as an independent nation. But July 4, 1776 wasn't the day that the Continental Congress decided to declare independence (they did that on July 2, 1776). It wasn’t the day we started the American Revolution either (that had happened back in April 1775). And it wasn't the day Thomas Jefferson wrote the first draft of the Declaration of Independence (that was in June 1776). Or the date on which the Declaration was delivered to Great Britain (that didn't happen until November 1776). Or the date it was signed (that was August 2, 1776). So what did happen on July 4, 1776? The Continental Congress approved the final wording of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. They'd been working on it for a couple of days after the draft was submitted on July 2nd and finally agreed on all of the edits and changes. July 4, 1776, became the date that was included on the Declaration of Independence, and the fancy handwritten copy that was signed in August (the copy now displayed at the National Archives in Washington, D.C.) It’s also the date that was printed on the Dunlap Broadsides, the original printed copies of the Declaration that were circulated throughout the new nation. So when people thought of the Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776 was the...
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...The name of the book which I have selected for this book report is Martin Van Buren. The author of this book was Ted Widmer. Ted Widmer, or Edward L. Widmer, was born in 1963 and he was a former speechwriter for Bill Clinton who was the President of the United States from 1993-2001. Also, he wrote this book about this man, Martin Van buren, who was the first President born after the signing of the Declaration of Independence Also, Van Buren was the first president who was born without trace of Anglo-Saxon blood. He did not speak English, but rather Dutch. Throughout the book, Widmer tries to convince the reader that Van Buren was not that bad of a President for the United States of America. Everyone puts the blame on him for the Panic of 1837...
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...function effectively in the world, and thereby to assist society to function effectively as well. We study the past in school not because students need to know a collection of old facts, but because history helps them understand how the world works and how human beings behave. Knowledge of the past is required for understanding present realities. When people share some common knowledge of history, they can discuss their understandings with one another. What does history give?Human self-awareness is the very essence of history. Arnold Toynbee said, “History is a search for light on the nature and destiny of man.” R.G. Collingwood wrote, “History is for human self-knowledge…the only clue to what man can do is what man has done. The value of history, then, is that it teaches us what man has done and thus what man is. Psychologist Bruno Bettleheim asserted that human self-knowledge is the most important role of education.” Most of all, our schools ought to teach the true nature of man, teach about his troubles with himself, his inner turmoil and about his difficulties in living with others. They should teach the prevalence and the power of both man’s social and asocial tendencies, and how the one can domesticate the other, without destroying his independence or self-love.” Read more: http://socyberty.com/education/teaching-history-is-important/#ixzz21GQnYhj0 Why history in the elementary level?In this age of the World Wide Web, globalization and international terrorism, knowledge...
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