Civilizaţie Americană

Proiect cofinanat din Fondul Social European prin Programul Operaional Sectorial Dezvoltarea Resurselor Umane 2007-2013 Investete
n oameni!
Formarea profesional a cadrelor didactice din nvmntul preuniversitar pentru noi oportuniti de dezvoltare n carier
AMERICAN CIVILISATION
Constantin - Sorin PRVU
Program de conversie profesional la nivel postuniversitar pentru cadrele didactice din nvmntul preuniversitar Specializarea ENGLEZ Forma de nvmnt ID - semestrul III
2011
American Civilisation
Constantin-Sorin PRVU
2011
2011
Acest manual a fost elaborat n cadrul "Proiectului pentru nvmntul Rural", proiect co-finanat de ctre Banca Mondial, Guvernul Romniei i comunitile locale. Nici o parte a acestei lucrri nu poate fi reprodus fr acordul scris al Ministerului Educaiei, Cercetrii, Tineretului i Sportului.
Series coordinator: Anca Cehan
ISBN 973-0-04103-2
Contents
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION UNIT 1 1 1.1 1.1.1 1.1.2 1.1.3 1.1.4 1.2 1.2.1 1.2.2 1.2.3
Consumer Society ..................................................................................... 4 Unit Objectives ........................................................................................... 5 Consumer Goods ....................................................................................... 5 Coca-Cola .................................................................................................... 5 Fast-Food .................................................................................................... 7 Cars and Motorcycles .................................................................................. 8 Jeans ......................................................................................................... 10 Popular Culture ........................................................................................ 11 Hollywood .................................................................................................. 12 The Pin-Up ................................................................................................. 13 The Pulp .................................................................................................... 14 Summary .................................................................................................. 16 Key Terms ................................................................................................ 17 Glossary of Terms and Comments......................................................... 17 SAA No. 1 ................................................................................................. 18 Answers to SAQs ..................................................................................... 19 Further Readings ..................................................................................... 20 UNIT 2
2 2.1 2.1.1 2.2 2.2.1 2.3 2.3.1 2.3.2
Education and Recreation ....................................................................... 21 Unit Objectives ......................................................................................... 22 Education ................................................................................................. 22 Harvard ...................................................................................................... 24 Holidays .................................................................................................... 25 Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas ................................................... 25 Sports ....................................................................................................... 27 Baseball ..................................................................................................... 27 Football ...................................................................................................... 29 Summary .................................................................................................. 31 Key Terms ................................................................................................ 32 Glossary of Terms and Comments......................................................... 32 Further Readings ..................................................................................... 32 UNIT 3
3 3.1 3.2 3.2.1 3.2.2 3.3
The Melting Pot ........................................................................................ 33 Unit Objectives ......................................................................................... 34 Settlers and Pioneers .............................................................................. 37 The Native American ............................................................................... 41 Indian Homes ............................................................................................. 43 Indian Food: The Buffalo............................................................................ 45 The Afro-American................................................................................... 47 Summary .................................................................................................. 50 Key Terms ................................................................................................ 51 i
Contents
Glossary of Terms and Comments ........................................................ 51 SAA No. 2 ................................................................................................. 53 Answers to SAQs .................................................................................... 53 Further Readings..................................................................................... 54 UNIT 4 4 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6 4.7 American Geography and Economy...................................................... 55 Unit Objectives ........................................................................................ 56 Transport ................................................................................................. 56 Rivers and Lakes ..................................................................................... 59 Land and People...................................................................................... 61 Farming .................................................................................................... 63 Precipitation............................................................................................. 65 Manufacturing.......................................................................................... 67 The Skyscraper........................................................................................ 69 Summary .................................................................................................. 71 Key Terms ................................................................................................ 72 Glossary of Terms of Comments ........................................................... 72 SAA no. 3 ................................................................................................. 74 Answers to SAQs .................................................................................... 75 Further Readings..................................................................................... 76 UNIT 5 5 5.1 5.1.1 5.1.2 5.1.3 5.2 5.2.1 5.2.2 5.3 5.3.1 5.3.2 5.3.3 5.3.4 5.4 5.4.1 5.4.2 5.4.3 5.5 5.5.1 5.5.2 5.5.3 5.5.4 5.5.5 5.5.6 American History..................................................................................... 77 Unit Objectives ........................................................................................ 78 Settling Down .......................................................................................... 78 Jamestown Settlement .............................................................................. 78 Mayflower Compact................................................................................... 79 Boston ....................................................................................................... 80 The American Revolution ....................................................................... 81 Towards the Declaration of Independence ................................................ 81 Towards the American Constitution........................................................... 87 Falling Apart ............................................................................................ 90 The War of 1812 ....................................................................................... 90 The Monroe Doctrine ................................................................................ 92 The Mexican War ..................................................................................... 93 The Election of 1860 ................................................................................ 94 The American Civil War ......................................................................... 96 Gettysburg and Vicksburg ........................................................................ 97 The Election of 1864 ............................................................................... 99 The Compromise of 1877 ....................................................................... 101 The Twentieth Century ......................................................................... 103 The World Wars ..................................................................................... 103 The Nuclear Arms Race ......................................................................... 107 The Vietnam War ................................................................................... 108 The Civil Rights Race Riots .................................................................... 111 The New Left and the Counterculture ..................................................... 115 The End of the Cold War ........................................................................ 117 Summary ............................................................................................... 118 Key Terms ............................................................................................. 118 Glossary of Terms and Comments ..................................................... 119 Gallery of Personalities ...................................................................... 124
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Contents
SAA No. 4 .............................................................................................. 130 Answers to SAQs .................................................................................. 131 Further Readings .................................................................................. 133 Appendix ............................................................................................... 135 Bibliography .......................................................................................... 162
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Contents
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Introduction
INTRODUCTION
This module is meant as a survey of American civilisation, with special references to the attributes that provide its uniqueness: i.e. its consumerism, its social commitment, its tolerance and availability, its practical-mindedness and common-sense creativity, and its democratic spirit. Each of these attributes stands out in bold relief in one particular unit but, interrelated as they are, they come together everywhere, only that the focus is different. Unit 1 Consumer Society describes American civilisation in terms of such cultural myths as coca-cola, fast-food, Hollywood, pin-up, pulp, jeans, cars and motorcycles; Unit 2 Education and Recreation describes it in terms of cultural myths like public school, adult education, Thanksgiving and Halloween, baseball and football; Unit 3 The Melting Pot describes it in terms of cultural myths like Native Americans, Afro-Americans, settlers and pioneers; Unit 4 American Geography and Economy (with its surveys of transport, skyscraper, farming, manufacturing, land and people) and Unit 5 American History (with its emphasis, in the main, on the making of the nation: the Revolution and the Civil War) are less culturally oriented, although the cultural myths are not missing altogether: the railway, the Mississippi. The units come complete with: a Summary, which encapsulates topical ideas by focusing on the effects of the topics in question on human psyche and human mores; Key Concepts, a list of the basic concepts; a Glossary of Terms and Comments, with entries to special terms; and a Gallery of Personalities, with entries that draw the portraits of the personalities referred to in the unit. The terms, concepts and names listed in the Key Concepts section or explained in the Glossary of Terms and Comments and Gallery of Personalities sections are marked using the * symbol. An Appendix (actually three documents that are essential for the development of American civilisation as we know it: The Declaration of Independence, The Constitution, Martin Luther Kings speech I have a dream) has also been added to Unit 5.
Learning tasks Each of these five units contains a certain number of learning tasks marked as Stop and Think, Self-Assessed Questions (SAQs); all but one (respectively, Unit 1, Unit 3, Unit 4, and Unit 5) also contain a Send-Away Assignment (SAA). The Stop and Think assignments elicit the students own opinions with regard to certain ideas in the unit; they rely heavily on the students cultural background in other words, on their involvement in, and understanding of, Romanian culture and civilisation. Each Stop and Think assignment is provided with a 1
Introduction
blank space to be filled out. Where there is no clue leading to an answer, the Stop and Think tasks ask students to devise a portfolio to be discussed in the tutorials. The Self-Assessed Questions (SAQs) anticipate the students need to build on the ideas presented. They pose questions which refer the students back to the essential aspects treated in the respective unit. The students answers, written in the blank spaces of the SAQ boxes, should be confronted to those given in the Answers to SAQs section at the end of the unit. The Send Away Assignments (SAAs) elicit the students global understanding and acquisition of the essential aspects treated in each of the units. The completed SAAs will be sent to the tutor, at times set in agreement with him/her, by regular mail or e-mail.
Assessment
Students are required to write essay-projects for four sections of the module (Units 1, 3, 4 and 5) which is the equivalent in the distance learning system of continuous assessment (four projects for 40% of the final grade). The final test will be an oral exam counting for 60% of the final grade. On a 0 to 10 points yardstick, the evaluation criteria will be the following: 1 base point, theoretical approach of the topic 4 points, richness and relevance of the examples given 3 points, focused argument of the specificity of each of the five topic studied 2 points.
Introduction
Baseball: players, cheerleaders, field and stadium 3
Consumer Society
UNIT 1 CONSUMER SOCIETY

Unit Outline
Unit objectives ............................................................................... 5 1.1 1.1.1 1.1.2 1.1.3 1.1.4 1.2 1.2.1 1.2.2 1.2.3 Consumer Goods ........................................................................... 5 Coca-Cola ........................................................................................ 5 Fast-Food ........................................................................................ 7 Cars and Motorcycles ...................................................................... 8 Jeans ............................................................................................... 10 Popular Culture .............................................................................. 11 Hollywood ........................................................................................ 12 The Pin-Up ....................................................................................... 13 The Pulp .......................................................................................... 14 Summary ........................................................................................ 16 Key Terms ...................................................................................... 17 Glossary of Terms and Comments............................................... 17 SAA No. 1 ....................................................................................... 18 Answers to SAQs ........................................................................... 19 Further Readings ........................................................................... 20
Consumer Society
Unit objectives
By the end of this unit you should be able to see that (modern) American society / civilisation is, by common consent, synonymous with consumer society by and large; identify the consumer myth as both product and image; understand the new quality of the consumer myths, now fully accessible or pop (popular, like in pop music), and playfully true or real (reality, like in reality show); draw the ambiguous quality of the consumer myths.
1.1 Consumer Goods

By the early 1900s many of the key inventions which were to become fundamental to life in the new century were becoming increasingly available to the everyday American consumer: electric lighting and domestic appliances; homogenizing communications media such as the telephone, the gramophone, and the cinema; and the automobile which also played a key role in bringing together rural and urban communities. Before long the radio and the aeroplane further transformed peoples lives in terms of dissolving national and regional barriers. Fordism* dramatically cut down the time for car production, and had obvious wider economic implications for standardized mass-production (and thus patterns of consumption) throughout the industrialized world. Henry Ford, whose assembly-line techniques were increasingly widely applied in factories, was a particular target for those who saw life in the USA as shaped by the spiritual dictatorship of machinery, warfare and magazines, and newspapers of large circulation, and, last but not least, by readymade clothes, fast-food and refreshing drinks. We must admit that the average man was simply delighted to see that American consumers (the rich and famous included) buy essentially the same things as the poorest. As they often say: All the Cokes are the same and all the Cokes are good, no matter how much or how little you pay for them.
The consumer world implies general prosperity
1.1.1 Coca-Cola
Coca-Cola = equality The star of the consumer world is Coca-Cola, already on the market in 1886. The capitalist system of American, and Americanized, consumer culture culminates in the success of this product (and other products like Pepsi-Cola and Seven-Up), CocaCola being seen as one of the most potent symbols of the American way of life. Coca-Cola became a truly global product by the mid-20thcentury, much stimulated by its popularity amongst American 5
Consumer Society
troops stationed across the world during the Second World War and its aftermath. It came to be associated with the material values and desires of American consumer society, a symbol of material affluence, of the All-Mighty Dollar itself. From the early years of the century the publicity campaigns were mounted on a sophisticated level, with all kinds of associated promotional material, as well as an annual budget exceeding $1 million by 1914. The companys association with modern transportation systems (advertisements used to read: through skyways, as on highways, railways and busy streets) points to its growing international presence.
Stop and think! Is Coca-Cola good value for money or is it largely the result of an offensive advertising strategy? Use your personal experience and create a portfolio of such answers to be discussed in the tutorials. Give your answer (of no more than 100 words) in the space provided below.
Consumer Society
1.1.2 Fast Food

Fast-food: burgers, hot-dogs, ketch-up (Ham)burgers were first marketed from White Castle restaurant outlets which were launched in Wichita, Kansas in 1921, the decade in which fast-food franchising was launched by Howard Johnson. Another well-known product was the hot-dog, both burgers and hot-dogs coming complete with ketch-up. Another well-known chain is Harland Sanderss Kentucky Fried Chicken, which became prominent by the 1950s. However, it was the readily identifiable corporate symbolism of McDonalds (later including the parabolic arches) which represented the American lifestyle across the world. McDonalds is the worlds largest food-service organization and the leading brand-name in the United States. Consumer demand was much stimulated by the growth of such stores in the second half of the 19th century: R.H. Macy in New York and Marshall Field in Chicago were early leaders in the field. Such stores brought together under one roof the whole range of industrially produced goods and soon became socially acceptable places for unaccompanied women to meet as well as to shop without damaging their reputations. By the early years of the 20th century, department stores, centrally-heated and electrically-lit, were a feature of cities across the industrialized world. The post - Second World War pattern of much larger developments was set by the Northgate Shopping Center, erected in a Seattle suburb in 1950. It was in the form of a mall of forty shops, centered around a Bon March department store, with segregated parking and underground access for delivery vehicles. The first covered mall, the Southdale Center, opened six years later in a suburb of Minneapolis, and in many ways set the pattern for subsequent developments around the world.
Fast-food: McDonalds, Burger King, KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken)
Consumer Society
SAQ 1 Given the fast-food restaurant / classical restaurant choice, where would you go if youd like to do it: a) cheap; b) time-friendly; c) formal; d) healthy?
Write your answers in the space provided above (in no more than 60 words) and compare them to those in the Answers to SAQs section at the end of the unit.
1.1.3 Cars and Motorcycles

Cars: Cadillac, Ford Cadillac was the dream image of young American women and the envy, it was said, of women all over the world. The American housewife freed by science and labor-saving appliances from household drudgery and the dangers of childbirth, now afforded to be healthy, beautiful, educated, concerned only about her husband, her children, and her home. As a housewife and mother, she was respected as a full and equal partner to man. She was free to choose automobiles, clothes, appliances, supermarkets; she had everything that women ever dreamed of. So, an essential ingredient of postwar suburban life was the possession of an automobile. Although production was extremely limited in the middle of the war, by 1949 it was running at over 5 million per annum. By 1950 it reached 8 million, with the figure rising until 1955, the apex of the boom. The automobile became an emblem of conspicuous consumption in itself, but also exerted a considerable impact on the ornament of the urban environment, whether in terms of roads, drive-in cinemas, motels, diners, shopping centers, car washes, or simply signs which could be read and absorbed quickly while traveling down the highway at speed.
Motorcycles: Harley Davidson
Consumer Society
SAQ 2 Given category systems like gender, age, education, class, race, nation, religion, when will someone have a motorcycle rather than a car?
Consumer Society
1.1.4 Jeans
Although jeans originated in the mid-nineteenth century as Californian workers clothing made by Levi Strauss (a classical advertisement used to read: Since 1850 jeans have been called Levis in the USA!), they have since become potent and expressive emblems of wide-differing values throughout the 20th century. Associated with teenage rebellion in the 1950s on the one hand, or expensive designer brand names in the late 1970s and early 1980s on the other, their changing meanings paralleled those of the T-shirt which successfully made the transition from working vest to emblematic carrier of slogans and images. But, whatever the differences in generic and designer names, jeans are universally seen as informal, classless, unisex, and appropriate to city or country; wearing them is a sign of freedom from the constraints on behavior and identity that social categories impose. By the way, free was the single most common adjective used frequently with the meaning of free to be myself. Free as they certainly are in connotations, jeans are not entirely free of criticism. They are often blamed for their implicit impersonality, or rather for having no human physical warmth and consequently no spiritual dimension unlike, perhaps, the cowboy boots and cowboy hats. To sum it up, celebrities wear jeans to get mixed up with the crowd and fans wear jeans to be the spitting image of their idols. Jeans, along with a few other American clothing items: sneakers, T-shirts and cowboy boots and hats are supremely functional garments, comfortable, tough, sometimes cheap and requiring low maintenance. Their popularity is also explained by their unique ability to transect almost every social category one could think of: one cannot define a jeans-wearer by any of the major social category systems gender, class, race, age, nation, religion, and education.
Jeans = freedom
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Consumer Society
SAQ 3 Given such category systems as class, place, social status, gender, job, tradition, fashion, what will someone have: a) generic jeans; b) designer jeans?
1.2 Popular Culture

Popular does not mean folk. Popular culture, describing certain commodities, is produced for a sector of the market, a body of consumers; it refers to audience size to be popular a record, a film or fiction must sell or be viewed in relatively large numbers. It also refers to the quality of these consumers and viewers, to their attitudes to and uses of culture of goods to be popular a record or film or fiction must be consumed in ways that are clearly differentiated from those in which cultural elites consume their goods. In the end the qualitative measure is more important than the quantitative measure in this context. Although many popular songs, films, and television shows have smaller sales and viewing figures than successful classical records, art movies and high-quality TV programs, the distinguishing label popular still seems appropriate.
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Consumer Society
1.2.1 Hollywood
Hollywood = Dream Factory If ancient myths represent collective memories, modern myths, created by the so-called Dream Factory, are collective fabrications of an individual character. And Hollywood has been a masterhand at making up such myths around manufactured commodities, automobiles, ships (e. g. the Titanic), railways (e. g. the Orient Express), even places or regions: it has also made it its business to help film stars take on virtually mythical proportions. One such myth, the westerner, proved to be a big hit. The Westerners loneliness is organic, not imposed on him by the situation, but belonging to him intimately. He is prepared to accept life, perhaps, but he never asks of it more than it can give; and we see him constantly in situations where love is at best irrelevant. If there is a woman he loves, she is usually unable to understand his motives; she is against killing and being killed, and he finds it impossible to explain to her that there is no point in being against these things: they belong to his world. The Westerner is also a man of leisure. Even when he wears the badge of a marshal he appears to be unemployed. We see him standing at a bar or playing poker a game which expresses perfectly his talent for remaining relaxed in the midst of tension. If he does own a ranch, it is in the background; we are not actually aware that he owns anything except his horse, his guns, and the one worn suit of clothing which is likely to remain unchanged all through the movie. As a rule we do not even know were he sleeps at night. Yet it never seems that he is a poor man there is no poverty in Western movies. When he accepts employment of some kind, it is not because he needs to make a living, he simply wants to get ahead. What does he fight for? We know he is on the side of justice and order, and of course, it can be said he fights for these things. When an explanation is asked of him he is likely to say that he does what he has to do. If justice and order did not continually demand his protection, he would be without a calling. But what he defends, at bottom, is the purity of his own image in fact, his honor.
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Consumer Society
SAQ 4 Given your age and education, what kind of movie would you like to see: a) adventure; b) drama; c) science-fiction; d) comedy; e) cartoon; f) horror; g) thriller?
1.2.2 The Pin-Up

The pin-up image shows a full-length view of its subject and generally has some kind of story. The woman in a pin-up is usually dressed in a form-revealing outfit, either one that may be worn in public, such as a bathing suit, sun suit, or skimpy dress, or one that is more provocative and intimate, such as lingerie. Sometimes, a pin-up may be shown as a nude, but this is more the exception than the rule. Oftentimes she is immersed in bubbles and within easy reach of lollipops or ice-cream. A difference is sometimes made between pin-up art and glamour art, whose woman is generally attired in an evening gown or a fancy dress that is less revealing that that in a pin-up proper.
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Consumer Society
Stop and think! Could the theme of pin-ups be defined as glorifying the American woman? Use your personal experience to answer this question and create a portfolio of such answers to be discussed in the tutorials. Give your answer (in no more than 90 words) in the space provided below.
1.2.3 The Pulp

The pulp drew heavily on pin-up imagery. Of lower price and lesser quality than mainstream magazines, the pulps were exceedingly prolific and popular in their heyday, which dated from 1920 to the early 1950s. By the mid-1930s there were about two hundred of such cheap magazines (issued on pulpwood paper), published weekly, fortnightly or monthly, and sold largely by subscription at a cost of anything between a dime and twenty-five cents. The writers were badly paid often at a cent a word and unsung, many of them hidden behind a range of pseudonyms. The subject-matter was wide-ranging detective stories, sciencefiction, horror, adventure, crime, romance, Westerns and their front covers frequently employed suggestive, provocative and often explicit pin-ups, sometimes smoking a cigarette or speaking on the telephone. Pulp magazines began to disperse about 1952, when digest and paper-back novels began soliciting the artists talents for their new and rapidly expanding audience.
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Consumer Society
SAQ 5 Will you define the difference between pulp (roughly equivalent to paperback these days) and hardback in terms of cost, size, paper, cover, or genre?
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Consumer Society
Summary
The Americans themselves insist, not without some selfirony, that they are what they shop: namely, what they drink (Coca Cola), what and where they eat (fast-food), what they drive (cars and motorcycles), what they wear (jeans and T-shirts), what they see (movies, pin-ups), and what they read (pulp). In other words, they admit they are consumers and that their way of thinking is ultimately determined by the needs of their everyday life. This unit starts from the premise that such statements are correct and goes on to imply that they explain a lot about the Americans turn of the mind, about their practical-mindedness, about their common-sense and equalitarian spirit. The above statements also imply that opportunities are easily available and therefore equal for everyone, and that it stands within everyones power to be a self-made individual, if only he / she makes the best use of them.
I am what I shop.
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Consumer Society
Key Terms
Coca-Cola and Pepsi-Cola Burgers and hot-dogs Cadillac and Ford Jeans and T-shirts
Glossary of Terms and Comments

Fordism is related to Henry Fords introduction of the moving assembly line for the Model T Ford automobile in 1913; it cutdown costs by cutting down the time for car production.
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Consumer Society
SAA No. 1
Intended to process consumer-imagery as he is, pop artist Richard Hamilton associates Americanism with a number of products in the collage below, entitled Just what is it that makes todays homes so different, so appealing?
Make a list of the trivial contents and formal characteristics, and see their logic. Are they supposed to make a comment on American society? Is this commentary ironic? Indeed, just what is it that makes todays American homes so different from ours, and so appealing? Please send your answers to your tutor by mail. Your paper should not be longer than two pages. Please note that the quality of your ideas and the coherence of the essay will be 70% of your grade, while the accuracy of your language will count for 30%.
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Consumer Society
Answers to SAQs
Should your answer to SAQ 1 not be comparable to that given below, please revise section 1.1.2 of the unit. SAQ 1 If I am on a low-budget, I will certainly go to McDonalds, KFC or Burger King. I will also go there if I am interested in a friendly atmosphere. If I am dressed to kill, and I would like to show off, a fancy restaurant will be my choice this last choice also holds if I am keen on my figure. Should your answers to SAQ 2 not be comparable to those given below, please revise section 1.1.3 of the unit. SAQ 2 Motorcycles are certainly for boys rather than girls, for youth rather than the elders adventure and rebellion without cause are both part of the myth. As for the other categories, it all depends upon these two dimensions, adventure and rebellion being constituents of their semantic field. For example, one could expect a BA to be more responsible and see the risks he takes if he drives a motorcycle on a busy street. Or, you expect misfits to be more rebellious than aristocracy because they do not have much to lose. Or, you expect the minority race / nation / religion to be more dynamic (i. e. adventurous) than the majority, simply because they are not happy about their racial / national / religious status and they would like to have it changed. Should your answers to SAQ 3 not be comparable to those given below, please revise section 1.1.4 of the unit. SAQ 3 The oppositions between generic jeans and designer jeans can be summarized like this: (generic / designer) classless / upscale; country / city; communal / socially distinctive; unisex / feminine (or, more rarely, masculine); work / leisure; traditional / contemporary; unchanging / transient. Should your answers to SAQ 4 not be comparable to those given below, please revise section 1.2.1 of the unit. SAQ 4 If you are relatively young, you will arguably like adventure, science-fiction, horror; if very young, you are expected to love cartoons; if less than young and restless, you will be more willing to take time and follow the more complicated plots in thrillers and dramas. Comedy goes for all ages, with a plus for the middle-aged, who might feel comfortable to see that the bright side of life, even if only in fantasies, has not disappeared altogether. This same reasoning stands when the reference point is education. Should your answers to SAQ 5 not be comparable to those given below, please revise section 1.2.3 of the unit. SAQ 5 Pulp is by definition low-cost and small-size, even pocket-size; the 19
Consumer Society
paper (pulpwood) is necessarily cheap, but the covers tend to provide some sort of compensation, and are consequently imaginative and even luxurious. As for the literary genre at issue, popular fiction seems to be born for it; next comes best-selling mainstream fiction; poetry and drama are hardly ever in place.
Further Readings
1. Bogdan S. Prvu, Dicionar de Genetic literar, Institutul European, Iai, 2005, pp. 52-62. 2. Gheorghe Stan, OK pentru America, Institutul European, Iai, 2006, pp. 136-150. 3. tefan Avdanei, Acolada atlantic, Institutul European, Iai, 2001, pp. 196-204. 4. Sorin Prvu (coord.), Dicionar de Postmodernism, vol. II, Institutul European, Iai, 2006, pp. 7-20.
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Education and Recreation
UNIT 2 EDUCATION AND RECREATION
Unit Outline
Unit Objectives ................................................................................ 22 2.1 2.1.1 2.2 2.2.1 2.3 2.3.1 2.3.2 Education ......................................................................................... 22 Harvard.............................................................................................. 24 Holidays ........................................................................................... 25 Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas........................................... 25 Sports ............................................................................................... 27 Baseball............................................................................................. 27 Football.............................................................................................. 29 Summary .......................................................................................... 31 Key Terms ........................................................................................ 32 Glossary of Terms and Comments ................................................ 32 Further Readings ............................................................................. 32
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Unit objectives
By the end of this unit, you should be able to see that American society has always depended on education; see that education has been interpreted ever since the beginning of the 20th century as an all-encompassing process, involving young and old alike; understand the specific quality of American holidays and sports.
2.1 Education
Part of the program of reform in the United States was the argument that increased education was necessary for intelligent participation in political democracy. Congress created the first Department of Education in 1867 to disseminate the gospel of the free-school. Nineteen states had adopted compulsory education laws by 1881, and by the time of the First World War, nearly 19 percent of American children between seven and thirteen were attending school. Adult education was booming as well. $31 million was given in support of public libraries at the end of the nineteenth century; and by 1900 the Commissioner of Education reported over 9000 free circulating libraries in the country. Similarly, the Chautauqua* movement evoked an astounding response from the adult population. The United States does not have a national system of education. Education is considered to be a matter for the people of each state who have the real control at the public school level. Although there is a federal Department of Education, its function is merely to gather information, to advise, and to help finance certain educational programs. Education, Americans say, is a national concern, a state responsibility, and a local function. Since the Constitution does not state that education is a responsibility of the federal government, all educational matters are left to the individual states. As a result, each of the 50 state legislatures is free to determine its own system for its own public schools. Each sets whatever basic, minimal requirements for teaching and teachers it judges to be appropriate. In turn, however, state constitutions give the actual administrative control of the public schools to the local communities. There are some 16,000 school districts within 50 states. School boards made up of individual citizens elected from each community oversee the schools in each district. They, not the state, set school policy and actually decide what is to be taught.
The system of education is a matter of each individual state.
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SAQ 1 True (T) or False (F)? The Department of Education a) coordinates the educational programs in every state; b) finances the educational programs in every state; c) decides what textbooks will be used in every state. Compare your answers to those in the Answers to SAQs section at the end of the unit. Early 19-th century public school
Princeton University
Massachussetts Institute of Technology 23
2.1.1 Harvard
Found in 1636 (by vote of the Great and General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony) and named for its first benefactor, John Harvard of Charlestown (a young minister who, upon his death in 1638, left his library and half his estate to the new institution), Harvard University has grown from nine students with a single master to an enrollment of more than 18,000 degree candidates, including undergraduates and students in 10 principal academic units. An additional 13,000 students are enrolled in one or more courses in the Harvard Extension School. Over 14,000 people work at Harvard, including more than 2,000 faculties. There are also 7,000 faculties appointments in affiliated teaching hospitals. Even if the College was consistent with the prevailing Puritan philosophy of the first colonists, it offered from the beginning a classic academic course based on the English university model. An early brochure, published in 1643, justified the Colleges existence: To advance Learning and perpetuate it to Posterity; dreading to leave an illiterate Ministry to the Churches. Around 1644, Old College, Harvards first new academic building, was completed. Unequal to the harsh New England weather, the wooden structure had a useful life of only 34 years. The College never again built on the site.
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2.2 Holidays 2.2.1 Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas

Halloween (the night of October 31, when people once believed that ghosts could be seen) is a time when children have parties, dress up as witches, make lanterns out of pumpkins from which the inside has been removed and play trick or treat, meaning that they will play trick or joke on the people in the house unless they are given a treat, e.g. sweets or money. Of course, most people prefer to give treats rather than having tricks played on them. Thanksgiving (celebrated on the fourth Thursday in November) is associated with the time when Europeans first came to North America. In 1620 the ship the Mayflower arrived, bringing about 150 people, who today are usually called pilgrims. They arrived at the beginning of a very harsh winter which killed approximately one-half of the original 102 colonists. In the following spring of 1621, the Indians taught the survivors how to plant corn (called maize by the natives) and how to catch alewives (a variety of the herring family) in order that the fish might be used as a fertilizer to growing pumpkins, beans and other crops. They also instructed the Pilgrims in the arts of hunting and angling. By that summer, despite poor crops of peas, wheat and barley, a good corn yield was expected and the pumpkin crop was bountiful. In early autumn, to recognize the help afforded the colonists by the Indians and to give thanks for having survived, the Pilgrims arranged for a harvest festival. Four men were sent fowling after ducks and geese. Turkey may or may not have been a part of the forthcoming meal since the term turkey was used by the Pilgrims to mean any type of wild fowl. The festival lasted three days and there can be little doubt that the majority of the feast was most likely furnished by the indigenous population. It is certain that they provided venison. The remainder of the meal, eaten outdoors around large tables, also probably included fish, berries, boiled pumpkin, watercress, leeks, lobster, dried fruit, clams, wild plums and cornbread. Today Americans celebrate Thanksgiving to remember these early days. The most important part of the celebration is a traditional dinner with foods that come from North America. The meal includes turkey, sweet potatoes (also called yams) and cranberries, which are made into a kind of sauce or jelly. The turkey is filled with stuffing or dressing, and many families have their own special recipe. Desert is pumpkin made into a pie. Christmas (held on December 25 to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ) is still the most significant holiday of the year, due to its economic overtones the exchange of gifts among friends and family members is the climax of it all. The presents are found under a Christmas Tree, and the main dish is turkey.
Halloween: fancy (witch) parties, pumpkin lanterns, trick or treat Thanksgiving: turkey, yams, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie
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Stop and think! What does the phrase Merry Christmas mean to you? Use your personal experience and create a portfolio of such answers to be discussed in the tutorials. Give your answer in the space provided below.
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2.3 Sports 2.3.1 Baseball

Baseball is played with long wooden bats and a small, hard ball, by two teams of nine players each. The infield has three Baseball, played at bases a slow pace, might (= bags filled with sand) and a home plate, also called home, arranged in a diamond. The distance between each base is 90 feet just as well be (27.4 meters). The pitcher, who throws the ball to the batter at the about socializing. home plate, stands in the center of the diamond. The distance from the pitchers mound to the home plate is 60.5 feet (18.4 meters). The team that scores the most runs as its players move round the bases is the winner. Each game lasts nine innings. In each inning the visiting team is first to bat (= hit the ball), while the home team plays defense. Players bat in turn but when a team has three outs, it must let the other side bat. If a batter hits the ball and it is not caught in the air for an out, he runs to first base. If the ball is thrown to first base before the batter gets there, he is out. If not, then he tries to advance to second base, third base, and back to home for a run while other players bat. A base runner is out if another player in his team hits the ball and it is thrown to second or third base before he gets there. The most exciting play is when the batter hits a ball very far and can go round all the bases for a home run, also called a homer. An umpire judges the throws. If a pitch (= ball that is thrown) is not hit, the ball is caught by the catcher behind the batter and returned to the pitcher. A batter strikes out (= is out) if the pitcher throws three balls within the strike zone (= the area between the batters shoulders and knees) and he misses then or does not try to hit them. A batter can go to first base on a walk if the pitcher throws four balls outside the strike zone. As well as the pitcher and the catcher, the defense has four other players in the infield and three in the outfield. The professional season lasts from April to October. Major league baseball is organized into the American League and the National League. At the end of the season the four best teams in each league play to decide which two will go forward to the World Series. The team that wins four games in this competition are the World Champions.
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SAQ 2 Fill in the blanks: Baseball is played by two teams of ................... (1) players each. The infield has ................... (2) bases and a home, arranged in a diamond. The distance between each base is ................... (3) feet. The distance from the pitchers mound to the home plate is ................... (4). The team that scores ................... (5) as its players move round the bases is the winner. Each game lasts ................... (6) innings. In each inning ................... (7) is first to bat, while ................... (8) plays defense. Compare your answers to those in the Answers to SAQs section at the end of the unit.
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2.3.2. Football
Football is one of the major sports in the US. In Britain and elsewhere the game is often called American football to distinguish it from soccer. American football developed from the games of football and rugby. There is a lot of dangerous play, so helmets and thick pads must be worn. Each game has cheerleaders and bands of musicians who march on the field between the halves of the game. Whole families go to watch games, and there is almost no violence from supporters. Many games are shown live on US television. British television now also shows some games each week. In US high schools, colleges and universities, football games are the centre of many social events, such as homecoming. The game is played by two teams of 11 players each, with different players used for defense, offense and kicks. The field is 100 yards (91.5 meters) long and 53 yards 1 foot (49 meters) wide. It is sometimes called a gridiron because the lines across it that mark every 10 yards (9 meters) make it look like the metal tray on which meat is grilled or broiled. At each end of the field there is an extra 10 yards (9 meters) called the end zone, with a goal post in the shape of an H'. The ball is oval-shaped and sometimes called a pigskin because the balls were formerly made from pigs skin. A team scores when its players send the ball down the field and across the opponents goal line for a touchdown of seven points. They can then add a point after touchdown (PAT) if they kick the ball through the goal posts. A team can get three points if the ball is kicked between the goal posts without a touchdown and two points if their defense stops the opponents in their own end zone. The team with the ball must move it 10 yards (9 meters) in four downs (= separate actions). This is done from behind linemen who face the defenses linemen. An action begins when the quarterback takes the ball from between the legs of the center and runs with it, hands it to another runner or passes (= throws) it to another player. Between actions, the team with the ball has a huddle, so the quarterback can tell them what to do next. If 10 yards (9 meters) are not made in four downs, the team must punt (= kick the ball to the other team). The defense can also get the ball by an interception (= a catch of the opponents pass) or a fumble (= a ball accidentally dropped). The National Football League (NFL) has 30 professional teams. Six teams in the American Football Conference, and six in the National Football Conference play against each other to decide the two that will meet in the Super Bowl.
Football is not soccer.
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SAQ 3 Fill in the blanks: Football is played by two teams of ................... (1) players each, with different players used for defense, offense and kicks. The field is ................... (2) yards long and ................... (3) yards wide. It is sometimes called a gridiron because the lines across it that mark every ................... (4) yards make it look like the metal tray on which meat is grilled or broiled. At each end of the field there is an extra ................... (5) yards called the end zone, with a goal post in the shape of an H'. The ball is oval-shaped and sometimes called ................... (6) because the balls were formerly made from pigs skin. A team scores when its players send the ball down the field and across the opponents goal line for a ................... (8). Compare your answers to those in the Answers to SAQs section at the end of the unit.
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Summary
American education is a continuous process; e. g. it is never too late to go to college (90 year-old students are often reported to have done well in the finals). It is also a flexible process; e. g. one particularly gifted student could have his / her classes compressed and thus go to college when he / she is hardly 10 years old. Holidays (because of the mingling of peoples, races and religions) tend to lose their religious impact and now they have a primarily economic character. Preceded and followed by big sales, they are a good opportunity for everyone to be both on the giving end and the receiving end they are all about getting and giving. Sports have, like education and holidays, a universal character, getting everyone involved as a practitioner (jogging, bowling) or at least as a fan (baseball, football) in this latter capacity, the American mostly means to socialize.
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Key Terms
Public school Adult education Thanksgiving and Halloween Baseball and football

Chautauqua movement was founded in 1874 by Methodist Minister John H. Vincent; it spread rapidly until seventy such assemblies were operating at the centurys end. Courses in science, literature, music, religion and government were given. Six presidents of the United States lectured by the shores of the Chautauqua Lake. Vincent claimed in 1886 that there were more than one hundred thousand readers.
Answers to SAQs
Should your answers to SAQ 1 not be comparable to those given below, please revise section 2.1 of the unit. SAQ 1 a) F; b) F; c) F. Should your answers to SAQ 2 not be comparable to those given below, please revise section 2.3.1 of the unit. SAQ 2 (1) nine; (2) three; (3) 90; (4) 60.5; (5) the most runs; (6) nine; (7) the visiting team; (8) the home team. Should your answers to SAQ 3 not be comparable to those given below, please revise section 2.3.2 of the unit. SAQ 3 (1) eleven; (2) 100; (3) 53 yards and 1 foot; (4) 10; (5) 10; (6) pigskin; (7) touchdown.
Further Readings
1. Sorin Prvu, Dicionar de Scriitori americani, Editura Universitii Al. I. Cuza, Iai, 1990, pp. 45-51. 2. Gheorghe Stan, OK pentru America, Institutul European, Iai, 2006, pp. 115-130.
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The Melting Pot
UNIT 3 THE MELTING POT

Unit Outline
Unit Objectives .................................................................................34 3.1 3.2 3.2.1 3.2.2 3.3 Settlers and Pioneers ....................................................................... 37 The Native American ........................................................................ 41 Indian Homes ..................................................................................... 43 Indian Food: The Buffalo .................................................................... 45 The Afro-American ........................................................................... 47 Summary ........................................................................................... 50 Key Terms ......................................................................................... 51 Glossary of Terms and Comments ................................................. 51 SAA No. 2 .......................................................................................... 53 Answers to SAQs ............................................................................. 53 Further Readings .............................................................................. 54
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Unit objectives
By the end of this unit, you should be able to describe American civilisation as a melting pot; identify the directions of this process, of constant assimilation. American history is one of crossing barriers (social and political, but basically geographical) from east to west, from coast to coast to cover an area of 9,372,614 sq. km. How history moved in space may be illustrated by the five frontier phases, whose boundaries are both temporal and geographical: the tidewater phase of settlement, up to 1700 (on the coast and further inland along tidal rivers, from southern Maine to South Carolina); the settling of fertile river valleys between 1700 and 1750 (from New England to Pennsylvania, to Virginia, the Carolinas and Georgia to the Appalachian block); the fertile lands of Kentucky and Tennessee opened to explorers by Daniel Boone and his party of axmen through the forested Cumberland Gap (1750 1775); the treaty of 1783 setting the western boundary of the US on the Mississippi; the 1803 Louisiana purchase, giving the US the vast territory that stretches from the Gulf of Mexico to the Canadian border and westward to the Rocky Mountains, (adding to the land area of the US all or parts of present days Louisiana, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, Colorado, Nebraska, Iowa, North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, Wyoming and Montana, including the Great Plains or the Western Prairies); the last continental frontier (the fever resulting in the annexation of Washington, Oregon, Idaho and parts of Montana and Wyoming in 1846). To all these must be added the purchase of Texas the Lone Star Republic , parts of California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona and New Mexico in 1848, that of Alaska in 1867 and the annexation of the Hawaiian islands in 1898 (both of which became states only in 1959). The Westward movement and the historical development of America created todays fifty governmental units and, more importantly, the six cultural regions shaped both by the variety in geographical areas and the historical, economic, literary and folkloric realities: New England (the five states along the Atlantic seaboard, plus parts of Vermont and New York); the Middle Atlantic Region (New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland); the South (Virginia, West Virginia, Florida, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana, and parts of Missouri); the Midwest (from Ohio to Nebraska and from North Dakota to Kansas, including eastern Colorado); the Southwest (Western Texas, portions of Oklahoma, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, southern California); and the West (Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, Utah, California, Nevada, Idaho, Oregon, Washington, Alaska, Hawaii). There are also a number of sub-regions, such as the Mississippi Valley, the Ohio Valley, Sacramento Valley, the Blue Ridge county in Virginia, and the Ozark county in Arkansas and Missouri. Their features range from regional differences in foods, to language (few and clipped words and choppy sentences in New England as compared to the slower, more musical southern drawl for instance), attitudes and outlooks.
Six cultural regions: New England, the Middle Atlantic, the South, the Midwest, the Southwest, the West
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Most Americans are Protestants.
New Englands economic mainstays are fishing, shipbuilding and trade. Its preeminent cultural role is primarily given by the many (and great) colleges and universities, including Harvard, Yale, Brown, and Dartmouth. This hilly region, with a rather bad climate, is inhabited by shrewd, thrifty, hardworking and inventive people, from among whom rose such figures as Hawthorne, Emerson, Thoreau and many, many others. The Middle Atlantic Region is one of great cities (New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore), of much history, and heavy industry; also one of many nations: the Dutch colonists of the lower Hudson area, the Swedes of Delaware, the English of Maryland, the German Mennonites of Pennsylvania (Amish), the Jews of New York, the Italians, East Europeans and many others inhabiting this bridge between New England and the South. The most different of all is, probably, the South, with its plantations and slaves, warm-hot climate, vacation centers of Florida and Georgia, the booming industry of today, Negro Spirituals and jazz, and the literary space of Wolfe, Warren, McCullers, Faulkner, Williams and OConnor. The Nations breadbasket is the Midwest of mighty Mississippi; a cultural crossroads of open, friendly, straightforward and down-to-earth people (or peoples: Germans, Swedes, Norwegians, Irish, Finns, Poles, Ukrainians); a region with its hub in Chicago and its many cultural accomplishments. The Southwest is drier, emptier and less densely populated, with a different ethnic mix (a large Spanish-speaking population in Texas, New Mexico and Arizona) and with endless wide-open spaces. The last frontier includes the eleven states of the West: scenic beauty on a grand scale, flamboyant life-styles covering the period from the Gold Rush of 1848 to Hollywood, Los Angeles (former hodge-podge of adobe huts called El Pueblo de Nuestra Senora la Reina de Los Angeles de Porciuncula), and San Francisco. The great majority of Americans are Protestants, which by mid-18th century had come to be of several kinds: German Lutherans, Presbyterians (Calvinists), Huguenots, Congregationalists (the former Puritans, still dominating in New England), and adepts of the Dutch Reformed Church. The Great Awakening of the 1740s brought a new feeling and strength into religion, while the 18th century Enlightenment in general had one of its offsprings in the deists. Freedom of religion was then stimulated by the Declaration of Independence and the 1st Amendment to the Constitution (Government would not meddle in religious affairs). The Second Great Awakening of early 19th century meant another upswelling of religious feeling which led to Evangelism (Methodist preachers and Baptist missionaries spread about the country and the world). The religious spectrum of a nation where there is no such thing as a state-protected religion, also includes over 50 million Catholics, about 4 million Jewish people, many Adventists, Reformists, Mormons, and Jehovah Witnesses, a number of Islamics, Buddhists and Hindus.
(Source: tefan Avdanei, North American Literary History)
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SAQ 1 In what cultural region will you place: a) New York City; b) Harvard College; c) Hollywood?
Compare your answers to those in the Answers to SAQs section at the end of the unit.
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3.1 Settlers and Pioneers

The settling of North America did not truly begin till the early 1600s, over a century after its discovery, by which time Spain already had thriving colonies in Mexico, the West Indies and South America. It was the Spanish empire that had also founded the first enduring colony on the territory of North America (1565): Saint Augustine, located in present-day Florida. Another notable attempt in this direction belonged to the British Jamestown (1607): Empire, when organizing Roanoke Colony in 1585. The colony, the first permanent however, disappeared by 1591. Britains next attempt, over twenty colony years later, would be more successful, with its first permanent colony in the Americas founded in 1607 Jamestown. In order to understand how the next successful English Mayflower colonies, that were entirely different, came to exist, it is important Compact (1620): to note the religious happenings in England. The established the first document church there was the Anglican Church, which had broken away of American from the Roman-Catholic Church during the reign of Henry VIII democracy (1509 1547). Relatively soon after that, however, a group of religious dissenters appeared. They were called Puritans, as they wanted to purify the church by eliminating the remaining Catholic Plymouth colony elements. Some of them, who would become known as Pilgrims, were more radical in their beliefs, considering that the Anglican held the first Thanksgiving feast Church could not be reformed. They originated in a small Protestant congregation in Scrooby Manor, England and had sailed in 1621. in 1605 for the Netherlands, which was establishing itself as a haven for the persecuted. Dissatisfied with the heavy Dutch influence on their children and with their poor economic conditions, some of these emigrants joined a larger group of Separatists who had remained in England, and sailed for the New World on board the Mayflower; they came instead to what is now called Massachusetts, and landed on the west side of Lower Cape Cod; believing themselves outside the jurisdiction of any organized government, the men drew up a formal agreement to abide by just and equal laws drafted by leaders of their choosing. This was the Mayflower Compact. The document, which was to be the official Constitution of Plymouth Colony for over 70 years, is the first document of American Democracy. The Pilgrims later relocated to Plymouth Colony on the mainland, establishing that settlement on December 21, 1620. Like the settlers at Jamestown, the Pilgrims had a difficult first winter, having had no time to plant crops. However, in 1621 they enlisted the aid of Squanto and Samoset, two American Indians who had learned to speak some English. That fall brought a bountiful harvest, and the first Thanksgiving feast was held. A second group of colonists established the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1629. This expedition consisted of 400 Puritans, but in the next two years 2,000 other people arrived in America in waves of emigration known as the Great Migration. In the New World the Puritans created a deeply religious, socially tight-knit and politically innovative culture that still lingers on in the modern United States.
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A Maryland Family Farm
Along a tidal stretch of the Potomac River, Maryland side, a modest family farm, free of debt but without slaves was unlikely to grow beyond 200 acres. Three acres of Orinoco tobacco planted in mounds (1) was the first crop established on newly cleared land. Stored in a barn to cure (2), tobacco was later packed into hogsheads (3), which were pulled by horse to a nearby wharf. There, as required after 1747, the tobacco was inspected as a condition of export. With the proceeds of a years sales, perhaps 14, the family could buy hoes and drawknives, tea and pepper, shoes and cloth. In a former tobacco field, some five acres of corn were planted in hillocks about eight feet apart (4), most often a tall-growing variety, gourdseed, and a type for roasting, flint. About ten acres of wheat (5) and some cotton (6) were contained by fencing called drunken man (7). Red Devon cattle were kept in pasturage (8). Slaughtered hogs were preserved in the smokehouse (9). The kitchen garden (10) provided vegetables and herbs; the orchard (11), apples for cider and for drying. The kitchen (12), a fire hazard, was separate from the house (13), behind which was a pile of spent oyster shells (14) and the necessary (15).
(Source: National Geographic Society, Historical Atlas of the United States, 1993)
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The City upon the Hill: the ideal Puritan community
Although it is a circulated idea that the Puritans came to America seeking religious freedom, perhaps a more accurate term would be religious domination. Despite the fact that they had fled from religious repression in England, the Puritans did not seek to establish toleration in America. Their social ideal was that of the nation of saints or the City upon a Hill, an intensely religious, thoroughly righteous community that would serve as an example for all of Europe and stimulate mass conversion to Puritanism. The political structure of the Puritan colonies is often misunderstood, as well. Officials were elected by the community, but only white males who were members of a Congregationalist church could vote. From a modern American standpoint, Puritan society was by no means a democracy. Officials had no responsibility to the people their function was to serve God by best overseeing the moral and physical improvement of the community. However, it was not a theocracy either Congregationalist ministers had no special powers in the government. On the other hand, by contemporary European standards, it was quite politically liberal arguably more so than any European power of the day. Socially, the Puritan society was tightly knit. No one was allowed to live alone for fear that their temptation would lead to the moral corruption of all of Puritan society. Because marriage generally took place within the geographic location of the family, within several generations many towns were more like clans, composed of several large, intermarried families. The strength of Puritan society was reflected through its institutions specifically, its churches, town halls, and militias. All members of the Puritan community were expected to be active in all three of these organizations, ensuring the moral, political, and military safety of their community. Although some characterize the strength of Puritan society as repressively communal, others point to it as the basis of the later American value on civic virtue, which proved to be essential for the development of democracy. Economically, Puritan New England fulfilled the expectations of its founders. The Puritan economy was based on the efforts of individual farmers, who harvested enough crops to feed themselves and their families and to trade for goods they could not produce themselves. There was a generally high economic standing and standard of living in New England. On the other hand, town leaders in New England could literally rent out the towns impoverished families for a year to anyone who could afford to board them, as a form of alms and as a form of cheap labor. Along with farming growth, New England became an important mercantile and shipbuilding center, often serving as the connection between the South and Europe. Most settlers who came to America in the 17th century were English, but there were also Dutch, Swedes and Germans in the middle region, a few French Huguenots in South Carolina and elsewhere, slaves from Africa, primarily in the South, and isolated groups of Spaniards, Italians and Portuguese throughout the colonies. After 1680, however, England ceased to be the chief source of immigration.
(Source: tefan Avdanei, North American Literary History, 2001)
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SAQ 2 Have a look at the following pictures (the picture of A Maryland Family Farm may also help you) representing the history of a farm, and put captions to each of them.
a)
b)
c)
d)
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3.2 The Native American

Historians generally speak today about five Indian cultures (most of them being connected by totems*, committed to powwow*, fond of wampum* beads, and need of scalps*), the culture (or rather the way of life) being a group united by the language the Indians spoke, the religion they believed in, the clothes they used to wear and the food they used to eat. Culture Northwest CaliforniaIntermountain Southwest Plains Eastern Woodland Home wooden lodge wickiup adobe apartment building tepee longhouse; wigwam Food salmon and other fish Clothing made of tree bark
acorn; fish and made of animal shellfish skins corn; beans, squash buffalo deer; rabbit; squirrel; berries made of cotton fibers made of buffalo hides made from hides of small animals
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SAQ 3 Match the two columns to remember what food a certain Indian culture eats: fish corn buffalo deer Plains Southwest Eastern Woodland Northwest, CaliforniaIntermountain
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3.2.1 Indian Homes

The Iroquois (including the ferocious Mohawks) and the Cherokee Indians (part of the Eastern Woodland Culture) lived in wigwams made by bending young trees to form the round shape of the home. Tree bark and over it a layer of thatch (dried grass) served as a roof to protect the inhabitants from bad weather. A small hole on top of this roof allowed smoke from the fire to escape. Longhouses, on the other hand, were made by building a frame from young trees and covering it with bark sewn together. Over a dozen families (related to each other) could live in this 100 feet long structure, in the rooms on either side of the hall way, sleeping on the platforms, covered with deerskin. The higher platforms were used for storing baskets, pots, and pelts (the skins of animals with the fur attached). The Iroquois built a log wall all around their village, with only one opening that they could close if their enemies came near. Beyond this high wall was cleared land used to raise crops and to see approaching enemies. Because the Plains Indians followed the buffalo migration, they needed a kind of shelter that could be quickly and easily put together and taken down. Their home, the tepee was made by pointing long wooden poles together, fastening them at the top and covering them with buffalo hide fastened to the ground. The long poles of the tepee were dragged behind the horse when the Indians moved their village (travois). The California Intermountain Indians lived in circular homes (wickiups) made by arching poles and covering them with brush and mat. This type of home was just temporary, to be used when the Indians were hunting. The Southwest Indians (benefiting by very little rainfall and a hot desert climate) lived in apartment-style buildings, made of adobe, clay and vegetables dried in the sun. Several families lived in each apartment, and as they grew, rooms were added on top of the rooms that were already there. Cherokee homes were usually wattle (twigs, branches, and stalks woven together) and daub (a sticky substance like mud or clay), the daub covering the wattle frame which created the look of an upside down basket. The Cherokee villages also had fences around them to prevent enemies from entering.
Indian homes: wigwams, longhouses, tepees, wickiups, adobe apartment buildings
wigwam
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SAQ 4 Match the two columns to recall what home a certain Indian culture has: wickiup adobe apartment building tepee wigwam Southwest California-Intermountain Eastern Woodland plains
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3.2.2 Indian Food: the Buffalo

The Plains Indians (Dakota, Cheyenne, Sioux, and Comanche) lived in the area known as the Great Plains and had the buffalo as the most important natural resource. It provided them with all of their basic needs: food, clothing, and shelter. When the buffalo herd was spotted by the scouts, the women set up the tepees while the warriors began the hunt. They mounted their horses, rode right into the herd and used bows and arrows to kill the buffalo. Or, again on horseback they chased the buffalo off a cliff. Or, strange enough this time, they sneaked up on the buffalo with wolf skins covering their bodies, then killed them with bows and arrows. When the hunt was over, the women and children joined the warriors to cut up the buffalo. The Indians used the meat of the buffalo for food, roasting the fresh meat on a stick over the fire or sometimes boiled it with fresh vegetables. They also made a sort of sausage by stuffing meat and herbs into the buffalo's gut. The meat that could not be eaten right away was cut into strips and hung on racks to dry. It would then keep for a long time. The skin (hide) of the buffalo was used for clothing and shelter, but not before it was treated. First, the hide was staked to the ground or tied to a frame. Then the flesh was scraped off the inside, and the hair was scraped off the outside. When the hide was clean, the inside was rubbed with a mixture of liver, fat, and brains. This was done several times and then washed in a stream. Finally, it was softened by pulling it back and forth through a loop of rope. The hide was then used as the outer covering of the tepee or, decorated with beads, porcupine quills, and feathers, provided the Plains Indians clothing. No part of the buffalo went to waste. The horns were used as spoons, cups, and toys. The bones were used as tools and weapons. The tail was used as a fly brush or whip. The stomach and intestines were cleaned and then used to carry water. The Plains Indians only killed what was needed to survive, never more. It was only when the white man started moving west that the slaughter of the buffalo occurred. SAQ 5 Fill in the blanks with the appropriate word or phrase: When the buffalo herd was spotted by .............. (1), the women set up .............. (2), while the warriors began the hunt. They mounted their horses, rode right into the herd and used .............. (3) to kill the buffalo. Or, again on horseback they chased the buffalo off a cliff. Or, strange enough this time, they sneaked up on the buffalo with .............. (4) covering their bodies, then .............. (5) them with bows and arrows. Compare your answers to those in the Answers to SAQs section at the end of the unit. 45
The buffalo provided food, clothing and shelter.
The Plains Indians only killed what was needed to survive.
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3.3 The Afro-American

The Europeans first came to North America in the second half of the 15th century and, if in the next two centuries they visited the New Continent sporadically. In the 17th century such visits were The race-based made on a regular basis. The explorers, attracted by the Promised slavery system was in full bloom in Land, became settlers and were soon in need of labor to clear the forests and tend the plantations and farms. These messengers early eighteenth traveled to Africa, and the slave trade would bring millions of century. captives in the years to come. Before the 17th century was over a new race-based slavery system developed and by early 18th century most of the Africans and African-Americans were slaves for life. At first, however, like their poor English counterparts, the Africans were treated as servants, who would be freed of their obligations to their owners after serving for several years. But rebellion and fear of rebellion spread and control over the captive population (fond of spirituals and later on keen on jazz*) became a significant issue for whites. Slaves mostly 1700s: Almost half of the slaves coming to North America worked on rice arrive in Charleston. Many stay in South Carolina to work on rice plantations in the plantations. Successful trade owners here take advantage of the first half of the eighteenth century. fact that at the end of the 17th century, some of the earliest African arrivals showed English settlers how rice could be grown in the swampy coastal environment. With cheap and permanent workers available in the form of slaves, plantation owners now realize this new crop (alien to Europeans, but familiar to many of the Africans) could make them rich. As rice booms, land owners need to import more African slaves to clear the swamps and cultivate this strange crop. By 1710, the Africans now outnumbering the Europeans in South Carolina, Carolina authorities develop laws to keep the African American population under control. Whipping, branding, dismembering, castrating, or killing a slave are legal under many circumstances. Freedom of movement and access to education are outlawed. Most slaves 1750: Georgia is the last of the British North American worked the colonies to legalize slavery which is now legal in each of the tobacco fields in thirteen British colonies that are soon to become the United States. the second half of 61% of all British North American slaves nearly 145,000 live the eighteenth in Virginia and Maryland, working the tobacco fields. White slave century. owners live in towns like Charleston or Savannah; most of the 40,000 slaves live on plantations in South Carolina and Georgia in which the coastal rice belt has a slave population of 40,000. As rice needs irrigating and requires a large labor force, slaves live and work in larger groups, coordinated by overseers who assign a task in the morning, the slaves being on their own when the assigned Most slaves lived work is over. on cotton 1793: The cotton gin is invented, and so, the economy of the plantations in early nineteenth century. South is changed, with cotton the money-making crop. Slavery takes on new importance with a massive influx of slaves to the cotton-growing states in the lower South and the West. In the Cotton belt, most slaves live on plantations with less than 50 slaves, pressed on by an overseer, for the year-long cycle of 47
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Philadelphia: a way to solve the contradiction of a The Black Community in Philadelphia (1810-1831) country founded on independence, In cities like Philadelphia, free blacks in their pursuit of life, liberty but built on slavery and happiness build churches and schools, forming beneficial societies. Philadelphia seems to be showing the way for the rest of the country to resolve the contradiction of a country founded on ndependence but built on slavery. People come from rural areas in a hundred-mile radius around Philadelphia, as well as from the South, attracted by job prospects and the promise of living among other free black people. A small but growing number of black professionals include doctors, teachers, clergymen, hairdressers, shoemakers, bakers, tailors, sailmakers, food caterers, carpenters, musicians, and many other professions. In 1811, the city directory ists 81 black men who own their own businesses; by 1816, the number is 180. Most women work as domestic laborers, but some are teachers, or own their own businesses. Together these people create a black middle class. Philadelphia now has the largest, most aggressive, and wealthiest free black population in the western world. Philadelphians know it. Americans know it. Everybody sees a Philadelphian as the prototype of what a free African American would look like, and what a free African American would do. That is to say, they would buy property; they would take over the public space; they would see themselves as gentlemen and ladies.
cultivation culminating in ginning and pressing the crop in January and February. The slave population almost triples in size between 1790 and 1830. Since children are most likely to be sold, this tragedy touches nearly every black family. The cotton boom and the resulting demand for slaves bring increased danger for northern free blacks: the possibility of being kidnapped and sold into slavery in the South. The practice of kidnapping is actually widespread, many southern slave owners taking a no question asked approach to purchasing slaves. The 1793 Fugitive Slave Act enables any white person to claim a black person as a fugitive, unless another white person testifies otherwise. Blacks are not allowed to testify against whites in court according to southern law.
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SAQ 6 Fill in the blanks: In the 1700s almost half of the slaves coming to North America arrive in .............. (1). Many stay in South Carolina to work on ................. (2). Freedom of movement and ................. (3) are outlawed. 61% of the slaves live in Virginia and Maryland, working ................. (4). As rice needs irrigating and requires a large ................. (5), slaves live and work in larger groups, coordinated by ................. (6). In 1793 ................. (7) is invented, and so, the economy of the South is changed, with ................. (8) the moneymaking crop. In the Cotton belt, most slaves live on plantations, with less then ................. (9) slaves, pressed on by an overseer, for the year-long cycle of cultivation, culminating in ................. (10) the crop in January and February.
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Summary
American civilisation, a melting pot of peoples and races is one of crossing barriers. Everyone (group or individual) means to make a difference, now they are on the wining side, and now on the losing side. A formidable sense of competition was activated from the start philosophers and economists call it capitalist spirit. The settlers, mostly English and protestants created a deeply religious, socially tight-knit and politically innovative culture that is still alive, 400 years since its inception. Of course, the system as such has suffered many changes, mostly through contacts with the Native Americans (all through the seventeenth century and in the first half of the eighteen century) and the African Americans (from mid-eighteenth century to this day).
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Key Terms
Puritan society Wigwam Tepee Buffalo Slavery

totem The Northwest Indians lived in wooden lodges holding several families under a roof made of pieces of bark sewn together or wooden planks, or boards. The inside of the building had a pit in the middle with a fire in it to be used for cooking. The families would share the fireplace in the middle. Outside of each wooden lodge was a totem pole which was considered a very important part of the lodge. Some lodges even had totem poles decorated on the inside beams of their homes. Each lodge had a different totem pole. wampum Wampum belts and necklaces were made from wampum beads (white and purple shells). They were used as a form of communication between Indian tribes, all Indian messengers carrying wampum belts when going to other tribes. Wampum was also used as money between white man and Indians. powwow The Plains Indians believed the gods showed themselves in the form of the sun, moon, stars, and anything that was strong or strange, such as an animal, person, or even an odd-shaped stone. And they tried to assimilate this strength in the course of self-induced visions: going to a lonely place and staying there for several days without food or water. Not everyone received such visions; it is the medicine men that did. These men were also said to be able to see the future and cure diseases. The powwow was a celebration or prayer to the Great Spirit, an important ceremony being the Sun Dance which took place in the summer months, and lasted around four days. During this time dancers performed the same exact movements and had nothing to eat or drink. They lifted their eyes to the sun for as long as they could endure it. Some men would even pierce their chests. Another important dance was the Ghost Dance, performed nightly in order to draw the attention of the gods and their ancestors. scalp The Plains Indian warrior could earn respect through battle only. When killing an enemy he brought home his scalp to prove it. He then trimmed his pants and shirts with scalps to show his success. Indians would keep count of how many enemies they had killed by adding a feather to their headdresses (war bonnets). jazz was begun in the South by African-Americans, many of its rhythms coming from the work songs and spirituals (religious 51
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songs) of Black slaves. New Orleans street bands first made it popular. Early forms of jazz created at the beginning of the 20th century were ragtime (with its strong rhythm which is ragged, i.e. not regular) and the blues (with a slow sad sound) that would develop in the 1950s into rock and roll (drawing on country music too), and finally into soul (an emotional music developing out of gospel) and rhythm and blues (with added rhythms, popular in the 1950s and the 1960s). Dixieland developed from ragtime and blues and made a feature from the improvisation (making up the music as it is being played), especially on the trumpet and saxophone. In the 1920s many African-Americans moved North taking jazz with them, and Chicago and New York became centers for their music. This was the beginning of the bigband era. In the 1940s there were new styles such as bebop (emphasizing the creative playing of individual musicians in small groups). Freer forms such as progressive jazz developed in the 1950s, and cool jazz followed in the 1960s. More recent styles have included funky jazz, jazzrock and hip-hop jazz.
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SAA No. 2
Have a good look at the pictures below and describe the work that the settler, the Native American and the African American does in the woods, in the camp and, respectively, in the field.
Please send your answers to your tutor. Your paper should not be longer than three pages. Please note that the quality of your ideas and the coherence of the essay will be 70% of your grade, while the accuracy of your language will count for 30%.
Answers to SAQs
SAQ 1 Should your answers to SAQ 1 not be comparable to those given below, please revise pp. 35 - 36 of the unit. a) the Middle Atlantic Region; b) New England; c) the West. Should your answers to SAQ 2 not be comparable to that given below, please revise section 3.1 of the unit. SAQ 2 a) clearing land around a small cabin; b) felling trees to build; c) building to acommodate livestock; d) the modern farm is now an estate. Should your answers to SAQ 3 not be comparable to those given below, please revise section 3.2 of the unit. SAQ 3 fish Northwest, California Intermountain; corn Southwest; buffalo Plains; deer Eastern Woodland. Should your answers to SAQ 4 not be comparable to those given below, please revise section 3.2.1 of the unit. SAQ 4 wickiup California Intermountain; adobe apartment building Southwest; tepee Plains; wigwam Eastern Woodland.
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Should your answers to SAQ 5 not be comparable to those given below, please revise section 3.2.2 of the unit. SAQ 5 (1) the scouts; (2) tepees; (3) bows and arrows; (4) wolfskins; (5) killed. Should your answers to SAQ 6 not be comparable to those given below, please revise section 3.3 of the unit. SAQ 6 (1) Charleston; (2) rice plantations; (3) access to education; (4) the tobacco fields; (5) labor foce; (6) overseers; (7) the cotton gin; (8) cotton; (9) 50; (10) ginning and pressing.
Further Readings
1. Dumitru Dorob, Din ara Fgduinei, Institutul European, Iai, 2000, pp. 65-71 2. tefan Avdanei, North American Literary History, Institutul European, Iai, 2004, pp. 18-19, pp. 20-21, pp. 30-31, pp. 24-32. 3. tefan Avdanei, Acolada Atlantic, Institutul European, Iai, 2001, pp. 57-60, pp. 196-204. 4. Gheorghe Stan, Unchiul Sam la el acas, Panfilius, Iai, 2002, pp. 7-10.
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American Geography and Economy
UNIT 4 AMERICAN GEOGRAPHY AND ECONOMY

Unit Outline
Unit Objectives ................................................................................. 56 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6 4.7 Transport ........................................................................................... 56 Rivers and Lakes .............................................................................. 59 Land and People ............................................................................... 61 Farming ............................................................................................. 63 Precipitation ...................................................................................... 65 Manufacturing ................................................................................... 67 The Skyscraper ................................................................................. 69 Summary ........................................................................................... 71 Key Terms ......................................................................................... 72 Glossary of Terms of Comments .................................................... 72 SAA no. 3 .......................................................................................... 74 Answers to SAQs ............................................................................. 75 Further Readings .............................................................................. 76
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Unit objectives
By the end of this unit, you should be able to describe American geography as the worlds largest stage for the worlds greatest economy; see the extraordinary diversity of American farming and manufacturing; understand the changing quality of transport and house building.
4.1 Transport
The development of transport facilities was of crucial importance in the growth of the United States. The first routes were natural waterways; the earliest overland routes were rough Transport: trails suitable for travel on foot or horseback. No surfaced roads from going on horseback and by boat existed until the 1790s, when the first turnpikes were built, some to going by rail, by under private auspices and some by state government. Besides the overland roads, many canals were constructed between the road and by air late 18th century and 1850 to link navigable rivers and lakes in the eastern United States and in the Great Lakes region. Steam railways began to appear in the East in the 1820s. The first transcontinental railway was constructed between 1862 and 1869 by the Union Pacific and Central Pacific companies, both of which received large subsidies from the federal government. Transcontinental railways were the chief means of transport used by European settlers who populated the West in the latter part of the 19th century and were also of utmost importance for moving goods from one part of the country to another. The railways continued to expand until 1917, when the length of operated track reached a peak of about 407,165 km. Thereafter, motor transport became a serious competitor both for passengers and freight. Air transport began to compete with other modes of transport in the United States after World War I. The first commercial flights in the United States were made in 1918 and carried mail. Passenger service began to gain importance in the late 1920s, but not until the advent of commercial jet craft after World War II did air transport become a leading mode of travel. During the early 1990s railways annually handled 37.4 per cent of the total freight traffic, trucks carried 27.6 per cent of the freight, and oil pipelines conveyed 19.3 per cent. Some 15.3 per cent was shipped on inland waterways. Although the freight handled by airlines amounted to only 0.4 per cent of the total, much of the cargo consisted of high-priority or high-value items. Private cars accounted for about 80 per cent of the total annual passenger traffic. Airlines came second, carrying nearly 18 per cent; buses were responsible for 1.1 per cent, and railways carried 0.7 per cent. In 1999 the United States had about 6.3 million km of streets, roads, and highways. About 21 per cent of the roadways were in urban areas. The National Interstate Highway System, 74,717 km in length, connected the nations principal cities and carried nearly one quarter of all the road and street traffic. Around 478 passenger vehicles per 1,000 people were registered. 56
As of 1992, Class I railwaysthe 13 largest railway companies in the United Statesoperated 74 per cent of the total amount of track, employed 89 per cent of the railway workers, and generated 91 per cent of the railway revenue. Overall, the United States had 272,761 km of operated railway track in 1998. Railways employ about 223,000 people and transport nearly 25 million cars of freight each year. Amtrak (the National Railroad Passenger Corporation), a federally subsidized concern, operates almost all the intercity passenger trains in the United States; it carried more than 51 million passengers annually in the early 1990s, including some 29 million metropolitan commuters. The United States has a relatively small merchant marine. In 1995 only 543 vessels of 1,000 gross tonnes and over were registered in the United States, of which only 354 were privately owned. Many American ship-owners register their ships in foreign countries such as Liberia and Panama, however, so they can operate the ship at a lower cost. The leading seaport in the United States in the early 1990s was the Port of New Orleans, Louisiana. Other leading ports included New York; Houston; Valdez Harbor, Alaska; Baton Rouge, Louisiana; Corpus Christi, Texas; Long Beach, California; Norfolk Harbor, Virginia; Tampa Harbor, Florida; and Los Angeles. Although it no longer ranks first among US seaports, the Port of New York remains a significant destination for both passenger and freight traffic. The inland waterway network of the United States has three main componentsthe Mississippi river system, the Great Lakes, and the coastal waterways. About 60 per cent of the annual freight traffic is on the Mississippi and its tributaries, about 19 per cent is on the Great Lakes, and the remaining 21 per cent is on the coastal waterways. The Mississippi river system has a combined network of waterways that exceed about 24,000 km in length; St Louis, Missouri, is the leading port. The Great Lakes carry more commerce than any other lakes in the world. The leading Great Lakes seaport is Duluth, Minnesota-Superior, Wisconsin. Oceangoing vessels can sail between the Great Lakes and the Atlantic Ocean via the St Lawrence Seaway (opened in 1959). The Intracoastal Waterway is a navigable, toll-free shipping route extending for about 1,740 km along the Atlantic Coast and for about 1,770 km along the Gulf of Mexico coast. About 45 per cent of the total annual traffic on all coastal waterways is on the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway, about 30 per cent is on the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway, and about 25 per cent is on Pacific Coast waterways. Airlines in the United States annually carry 528 million passengers, the vast majority of whom are domestic travellers. In the mid-1990s, the nation had about 5,474 public and 12,896 private airports. Among the busiest are Chicago-OHare International Airport; Dallas/Fort Worth Airport, in Texas; William B. Hartsfield International Airport, near Atlanta, Georgia; Los Angeles International Airport; and San Francisco International Airport. 57
SAQ 1 True (T) or False (F)? 1. The first routes used on the American continent were the rough trails. 2. The surfaced roads appeared at the end of the 18th century. 3. The first man-made canals were built at the end of the 18th century. 4. The two companies which built the first transcontinental railway (Union Pacific and Central Pacific) got no money from the Federal Government. 5. Transcontinental railways made an important contribution to the colonization of the West. 6. At the beginning of the 20th century trucks and vans started to replace trains. 7. Air transport became a serious competition after WWII. 8. Today the most important means of freight transport is the road. 9. Passenger traffic is handled mainly by cars. 10. American airlines carry more than 500 million passengers every year. Compare your answers to those in the Answers to SAQs section at the end of the unit.
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4.2 Rivers and Lakes

The rivers of the eastern United States, principal among which are the Hudson, Delaware, Susquehanna, Potomac, and Savannah, receive rainfall in every month and are therefore reliable routes for water-borne commerce. Rivers of the interior, such as the Ohio, Tennessee, Illinois, and Mississippi, often flood in spring and decrease in size during the hot weeks of late summer and the snowy winter months. Some degree of flow regulation and flood control has been achieved on these rivers through a costly and controversial system of dams and levees. In the western United States where mountain snowmelt is the principal source of water for the eastward-flowing Missouri, Platte, Arkansas, and Rio Grande rivers and the westward-flowing Colorado, Sacramento, Snake, and Columbia rivers. Most of these rivers shrink in volume as they flow away from their mountain sources; some, like the Colorado, are dammed and diverted for so many urban or agricultural uses that they no longer carry water to the sea. In Alaska the drainage system is dominated by the Yukon, a river as long as the Rio Grande but considerably greater in volume. Most of the waters in Missouri flow into the Mississippi River, either independently or through the Missouri River. The Missouri crosses the state from west to east, where it flows into the Mississippi. The huge Mississippi River defines most of the states eastern border. The five Great Lakes Ontario, Erie, Huron, Michigan, and Superior occupy an interconnected set of glacial basins and together serve as a major artery of transport. Glaciers also left tens of thousands of smaller lakes throughout the north-eastern United States, the upper Midwest, and much of Alaska. Among the larger of these are Champlain, Winnipesaukee, and Cayuga in the northeast and Winnebago, Red, and Mille Lacsin the Midwest. The Great Salt Lake of Utah and many smaller salt basins of the Mountain states are remnants of much larger Ice Age lakes that competed with huge forests for absolute supremacy over the Great Planes.
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SAQ 2 Make your choice: 1. The Hudson, Delaware, Potomac, Savannah etc. are: a) eastern rivers; b) western rivers; c) tributaries of the Mississippi; d) flowing into the Great Lakes. 2. The most important river in the United States is: a) the Missouri; b) the Ohio; c) the Tennessee; d) the Mississippi. 3. During the Great Depression, President Franklin Roosevelt initiated a program of building dams on: a) the Mississippi; b) the Tennessee; c) the Ohio; d) the Potomac. 4. Besides Lake Superior, the other four of the five Great Lakes are: a) Ontario, Hudson, Michigan and Champlain; b) Huron, Erie, Michigan and Red; c) Ontario, Michigan, Erie and Huron; d) Winnebago, Erie, Ontario and Red. 5. The Great Salt Lake belongs to the state(s) of: a) California and Nevada; b) Nevada; c) Arizona and New Mexico; d) Utah. Compare your answers to those in the Answers to SAQs section at the end of the unit.
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4.3 Land and People

United States: a federal republic United States of America or United States, popularly referred to as the United States or as America, is a federal republic on the continent of North America, consisting of 48 adjacent states and the non-adjacent states of Alaska and Hawaii. Outlying areas include Puerto Rico, American Samoa, Guam, and the US Virgin Islands. The 48 states are bounded on the north by Canada, on the east by the Atlantic Ocean, on the south by the Gulf of Mexico and Mexico, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean. The northern boundary is partly formed by the Great Lakes and the St Lawrence River; the southern boundary is partly formed by the Rio Grande.
An increasingly diverse population, in its ethnic composition, characteristics, language and religion
The total area of the United States (including the District of Columbia) is 9,629,047 sq km, of which 1,593,438 sq km are in Alaska and 16,729 sq km are in Hawaii. Inland, coastal, and Great Lakes bodies of water cover 470,129 sq km of the total area. Mount McKinley (6,194 m) in Alaska, is the highest point in North America; Death Valley, a depression 86 m below sea level, in California, is the lowest point. The population of the United States is highly mobile. In the 1980s and early 1990s redistribution from the north-central and north-eastern states to the south and west continued to be a major trend, as the American population became increasingly diverse in its ethnic composition, characteristics, language, and religion. According to the 1990 census, the resident population of the United States was 248,709,873. The population grew by 22,164,068 people or 9.8 per cent during the decade from 1980 to 1990. This increase was not evenly distributed: about 12 million, or 54.3 per cent of the growth, occurred in the states of California, Texas, and Florida. The population of the United States is 280,562,490 (2002 estimate). Another trend evident during the 1980s was that although urban areas grew at a somewhat higher rate than rural areas, growth rates were low in some of the largest metropolitan areas, and from 1980 to 1990 the population of a number of major cities such as Chicago, Philadelphia, and Detroit decreased. 61
SAQ 3 Make your choice: 1. The United States of America is a: a) federal republic; b) parliamentary republic. 2. Puerto Rico is: a) an American state; b) an American territory. 3. The District of Columbia is: a) the 51st American state; b) not a state. 4. The highest point in North America is: a) Mount Denali in Alaska; b) Death Valley. 5. The most populated American state is: a) California; b) Texas. Compare your answers to those in the Answers to SAQs section at the end of the unit.
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4.4 Farming
The number of farms is on the decrease. Farming accounts for less than 2 per cent of annual income and employs less than 3 per cent of US workers, yet the Americans lead the world in many aspects of agricultural production. Farmers not only produce enough to meet domestic needs, they also enable the United States to export more farm products per year than any other nation in the world. The total annual value of farm output increased from about $55 billion in 1970 to about $202 billion in 1994. Excluding inflation, the increase in the farm output was 2 per cent annually. The small subsistence farm run by a farmer primarily to meet personal needs has virtually disappeared from the American scene; most agricultural products are grown on large commercial farms for shipment to urban and industrial markets. The number of farms in the United States decreased from more than 5.6 million in 1950 to about 2.1 million in 1995. At the same time, average farm size increased from 86 hectares to 190 hectares. In the mid-1990s livestock and livestock products accounted for 49 per cent of the value of all farm marketings, and crops for the remainder. California led all states in the yearly value of farm receipts; it was followed by Texas, Iowa, Nebraska, Illinois, Kansas, and Minnesota. Beef cattle rank as the most valuable product of the nations farms, accounting for almost one fifth of total annual farm receipts. Many are raised on large ranches in south-western states, rich in grass. Dairy products represent about 11 per cent of the yearly value of farm marketings and are the second most valuable item coming from American farms. Other major livestock and livestock products include pigs, chickens, eggs, turkeys, sheep and lambs. Leading agricultural crops are corn, vegetables, soya beans, fruits and nuts, wheat, cotton, and tobacco. Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, Minnesota, and Indiana together produce about two thirds of the annual corn crop, while Kansas usually leads all states in yearly wheat production. For more than a century and a half, cotton was the predominant cash crop in the South. Today, however, it is no longer important in some of the traditional cottongrowing areas east of the Mississippi River and is now concentrated in relatively flat areas amenable to large-scale mechanization, such as the lower Mississippi Valley, the plains of Texas, and the valleys of California and Arizona. Tobacco remains an important cash crop. The leading tobacco-producing states are North Carolina and Kentucky. Other leading crops include peanuts, peaches, tomatoes, and apples. More than 75 per cent of the oranges and about 50 per cent of the tomatoes are produced in Florida; some 84 per cent of the grapes are raised in California; and about 50 per cent of the commercial apples come from orchards in Washington state. Additional major vegetable crops are sugar cane, rice, sorghum grain, dry beans, broccoli, cabbage, carrots, celery, cucumbers, lettuce, onions, green peppers, and mushrooms; valuable fruit crops include cantaloupe melons and watermelons, cherries, pears, plums and strawberries. Major nut crops include almonds, pecans, and walnuts. 63
California, closely followed by Texas with its beef cattle, comes first in the yearly value of farm receipts.
SAQ 4 Fill in the blanks with the appropriate word: Nothing like the great ................ (1) of America exists anywhere in Europe. They are far larger and more ................ (2) than European farms, and they employ fewer people. Less than 3 percent of the population ................ (3) in agriculture. The contrast between abundance of land and ................ (4) of man-power is evident. Farmers have tractors and mechanized equipment for tilling, seeding and ................ (5). The soil is sprayed with fertilizers and insecticides and the farm output is huge. a) scarcity; b) productive; c) harvesting; d) farms; e) works.
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4.5 Precipitation
The pattern of precipitation is largely a consequence of the interaction of wind and topography. The wind system of the Earth balances temperatures by taking heat from the equator and carrying it towards the poles. Two features of this global atmospheric circulation are particularly significant for the United States. One is a current of sinking air, a gentle but persistent downward movement of air from the upper atmosphere; the air loses moisture as it rises to the upper atmosphere and begins to move polewards. At about latitude 30 north the air begins to sink, bringing hot and dry conditions to the south-western United States, especially in summer. The other significant part of atmospheric circulation is the jet stream, a shifting zone of fast winds blowing high above the ground, generally from west to east. The path of the jet stream on any given day is a key to surface weather. In summer, the jet stream is usually near the Canadian border, though it may loop as far north as Alaska or as far south as Louisiana. It brings wet Pacific air onshore in Washington and Alaska, but in other western states dry air masses from Mexico and Canada dominate. In the east, by contrast, the jet can pull moist air masses northward from the Gulf of Mexico all the way to Canada. In winter, the entire wind system follows the sun southward. Pacific air masses now bring clouds and rain to the coastal mountains from California to southern Alaska. The jet usually crosses the country at the latitude of Oklahoma, and cold, dry Canadian air covers the northern half of the country; however, dayto-day shifts of the jet may pull warm, moist Gulf air as far north as Illinois or bring Canadian air to Florida. Regional weather hazards are closely associated with the seasonal position of the jet stream and associated fronts. Torrential rains are most common near the Gulf of Mexico, which is the major source of moisture for the country. Tornadoes occur in the centre of the United States, where Canadian and Gulf air masses often collide violently; hurricanes arise out of the late-summer warmth of the Atlantic Ocean and drift towards the south-eastern states in the autumn. Southern California experiences smog and forest fires in late summer. Heavy winter snows in the eastern United States are caused by the rapid cooling of Gulf air, amplified in the Great Lakes region by local lake breezes. December and March are the major months for snow in Minnesota and the Dakotas; in January there is a time of intense cold and little snowfall, because Gulf air cannot penetrate that far north. Finally, the occasional west coast storms of Hawaii are wintertime incursions of North Pacific air that occur when the jet stream curves far to the south. Normal weather consists of trade winds that cause rain only on the north-eastern slopes of each island.
Precipitation = interaction of wind and topography
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SAQ 5 Fill in the blanks with the appropriate word or phrase: Regional weather hazards are closely associated with ............. (1) of .............. (2) and associated fronts. Torrential rains are most common near the ................ (3), which is the major source of moisture for the country. Tornadoes occur .............. (4) the United States, where Canadian and Gulf air masses often collide violently; .. (5) arise out of the late-summer warmth of the ................ (6) and drift towards ........................ (7) in the autumn. Southern California experiences ............... (8) and .................... (9) in late summer.
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4.6 Manufacturing
The United States has been the worlds leading industrial nation since early in the 20th century. Until the second half of the 19th century, agriculture remained the dominant economic activity. After the American Civil War, great advances were made in the production of basic industrial goods. By World War I, exports of manufactured goods had become more important than the export of raw materials; as manufacturing grew, agriculture became increasingly mechanized and efficient, employing fewer and fewer workers. Perhaps the most important change in recent decades has been the growth of manufacturing outside the north-eastern and north-central regions. The nations industrial core developed in the north-east and this is still the location of the greatest concentration of industry, but it has become relatively less significant than in the past. In the early 1990s about half of the nations manufacturing employees were found in the 21 north-eastern and north-central states that extend from New England to Kansas; in 1947 about 75 per cent of the manufacturing employees lived in the same region. Since 1947 the Souths share of the nations manufacturing workers has increased from 19 to 32 per cent, and that in the West has grown from 7 to 18 per cent. Within the North, manufacturing is centered in the Middle Atlantic and eastern north-central states, which account for about 37 per cent of the annual value added by all manufacturing in the United States. Located in this area are five of the top seven manufacturing statesNew York, Ohio, Illinois, Pennsylvania, and Michiganwhich together are responsible for approximately 27 per cent of the value added by manufacturing in all states each year. The greatest gains in manufacturing in the South have been in Texas, and the most phenomenal growth in the West has been in California, which in the early 1990s was the leading manufacturing state, accounting for more than 10 per cent of the annual value added by manufacturing. Ranked by value of manufacturers shipments, the leading categories of US manufactured goods are processed foods, transport equipment, chemicals, industrial machinery, and electronic equipment.
Manufacturing is traditionally located in the North.
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SAQ 6 True (T) or False (F) ? 1. The United States has been the world's leading industrial nation since mid-20th century. 2. Until the first half of the 20th century, agriculture remained the dominant economic activity. 3. By World War II, export of manufactured goods had become more important than the export of raw materials. 4. American industrial core developed in the north-east. 5. Within the North, manufacturing is centred in the Middle Atlantic and eastern north-central states. Compare your answers to those in the Answers to SAQs section at the end of the unit.
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4.7 The Skyscraper

American architecture properly began in the 17th century with the colonization of the North American continent. Settlers from various European countries brought with them the building techniques and prevailing forms of their respective home-lands. Colonial architecture was subsequently adapted to the topography and climate of the chosen site, the availability of building materials, the dearth of trade builders and artisans, and the general poverty of the settlers. The English settlements were of two basic types: the small town in the north and the large plantation in the south. In New England settlers erected many-gabled houses of wood with prominant brick chimney stacks of late Gothic inspiration. In the South, brick rapidly replaced wood as the chief building material. Pioneer building techniques persisted well into the 18th century on the Western frontier where settlers often built cabins of logs or later of sod. A major breakthrough was made by Frank Lloyd Wright*, with his Prairie Style. The skyscraper is definitely the star of American architecture. The first outstanding achievements in the field are in Chicago: the Home Insurance Building, designed in 1883 by William Le Baron Jenney, employed a steel skeleton construction and embodied the general characteristics of a modern skyscraper. A number of similar buildings made Chicago the center of the early skyscraper architecture. In New York City, the Flatiron Building was constructed by D. H. Burnham in 1902, the Metropolitan Life Insurance Tower in 1909, and the Woolworth Building, 60 stories high, by Cass Gilbert, in 1913. The last one exemplifies the general tendency at that time to adapt earlier architectural styles to modern construction. The radical innovator Louis Henry Sullivan gave impetus to a new aesthetic for skyscrapers. The Building Zone Resolution adopted by New York City in 1916, established legal control over the height and plan of buildings and over the factors relating to health, fire hazard, and assurance of adequate light and air to buildings and streets. It also provided regulations regarding the setting back of exterior walls above a determined height, largely intended to allow light to reach the streets. Other monuments in New York City worth mentioning are: the Empire State Building (with 102 stories, 381 m high), the Chrysler Building (with 77 stories, 319 m high), 60 Wall Tower (with 67 stories, 290 m high), the GE (formerly RCA) Building in Rockefeller Center (with 70 stories, 259 m high), the Former World Trade Center (with its two unstepped, rectangular towers of 110 stories each, one 415 m high and the other 417 m high).
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SAQ 9 Fill in the blanks with the appropriate word: The Manhattan island is ................. (1) packed with every size and shape of building, large and small. There is the Empire State Building, the ................ (2) building in New York City today. There is Rockefeller ................. (3), the city-withina-city, which is a group of ................. (4) buildings, of which the highest has 70 storeys. The Center houses Radio City, one of the worlds largest indoor ................. (5), the headquarters of the National Broadcasting Company, the consulates of different nations, the offices of some air and railway lines, plenty of restaurants, hundreds of shops, banks, offices of several important publishers, dentists, opticians, and chiropodists premises. All this is contained in an area of 12,5 ................. (6). But Manhattan has lower buildings, too. The residential cross-town streets between Washington Square and 23rd ................. (7) are lined with charming old brownstone houses, now ................. (8) into apartments, and only four or six storeys (9). And from the skyscrapers and glittering stores of Fifth ................. (10) it is only a few minutes walk to shabby, squalid buildings in the dirty streets down by the Hudson and the East River. a) theatre; b) converted; c) tallest; d) street; e) avenue; f) center; g) tightly; h) high; i) acres; j) 15.
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Summary
The United States of America, popularly referred to as the United States or as America, is a federal republic on the continent of North America, consisting of 48 adjacent states and the non-adjacent states of Alaska and Hawaii. Outlying areas include Puerto Rico, American Samoa, Guam, and the US Virgin Islands. In general, sun intensity and, consequently, temperatures decrease from south to north; in summer, however, the decrease in intensity is partly offset by longer days in the north. Montana, North Dakota, and Minnesota actually have higher record temperatures than New Mexico and Alabama. In winter, on the other hand, the short days in the north exaggerate the effect of low sun angles, creating wide temperature differences from south to north. Forests use up much solar energy to evaporate water, and therefore the humid states of the eastern United States do not get as warm as the dry western deserts. Oceans and lakes moderate temperatures, and mountains are somewhat cooler by day and much colder at night than surrounding lowlands. Farming accounts for less than 2 per cent of annual income and employs less than 3 per cent of US workers, yet the Americans lead the world in many aspects of agricultural production. Farmers not only produce enough to meet domestic needs, they also enable the United States to export more farm products per year than any other nation in the world. The United States has been the worlds leading industrial nation since early in the 20th century. Until the second half of the 19th century, agriculture remained the dominant economic activity. After the American Civil War, great advances were made in the production of basic industrial goods. By World War I, exports of manufactured goods had become more important than the export of raw materials; as manufacturing grew, agriculture became increasingly mechanized and efficient, employing fewer and fewer workers.
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Key Terms
The railway The Mississippi The Great Lakes The skyscraper

Frank Lloyd Wright, generally acknowledged as one of the greatest architects of the 20th century, developed a highly original approach to residential design before World War I, which became known as the Prairie Style, actually a new aesthetic for American domestic building something home-grown which did not refer to European models but used local materials from local sites for local clients. He used the landscape the flat open spaces of the mid-West and its materials local brick and stone to create buildings that enhanced the lives of the families who lived within them. His houses encouraged access to almost any room by more than one doorway but with a central gathering point, usually a fireplace. These Prairie houses offered protection from the baking heat of summer: they had overhanging eaves (the roof extending out beyond the walls) with casement windows opening just beneath them.
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SAA No. 3
How would you describe the ''Promised Land'' (the dream of all settlers and pioneers), which you can see in the picture below?
Please send your answers to your tutor. Your paper should not be longer than two pages. Please note that the quality of your ideas and the coherence of the essay will be 70% of your grade, while the accuracy of your language will count for 30%.
Houses designed by F. L. Wright
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Answers to SAQs
Should your answers to SAQ 1 not be comparable to those given below, please revise section 4.1 of the unit. SAQ 1 1. F (natural waterways); 2. T (in the 1790s); 3. T (between the late 18th century and 1850); 4. F (they received large subsidies); 5. T (they were the chief means of transport used by European settlers); 6. T (motor transport became a serious competitor); 7. F (WWI); 8. F (railways handled 37,4 percent); 9. T (80% of the total annual passenger traffic); 10. T (528 million passengers). Should your answers to SAQ 2 not be comparable to those given below, please revise section 4.2 of the unit. SAQ 2 1. a); 2. d); 3. b); 4. c); 5. d). Should your answers to SAQ 3 not be comparable to those given below, please revise section 4.3 of the unit. SAQ 3 1. a); 2. b); 3. b); 4. a); 5. a). Should your answers to SAQ 4 not be comparable to those given below, please revise section 4.4 of the unit. SAQ 4 (1) d; (2) b; (3) e; (4) a; (5) c. Should your answers to SAQ 5 not be comparable to those given below, please revise section 4.5 of the unit. SAQ 5 (1) seasonal position; (2) jet stream; (3) Gulf of Mexico; (4) in the center; (5) hurricanes; (6) Atlantic Ocean; (7) the south-eastern states; (8) smog; (9) forest fires. Should your answers to SAQ 6 not be comparable to those given below, please revise section 4.6 of the unit. SAQ 6 1. F (early 20th century); 2. F (the second half of the 19th century); 3. F (by World War I); 4. T; 5. T. Should your answers to SAQ 7 not be comparable to those given below, please revise section 4.7 of the unit. SAQ 7 (1) g; (2) c; (3) f; (4) j; (5) a; (6) i; (7) d; (8) b; (9) h; (10) e.
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Further Readings
1. tefan Avdanei, North American Literary History, Institutul European, Iai, 2001, pp. 18-19. 2. tefan Avdanei, Acolada atlantic, Institutul European, Iai, 2001, pp. 7-11, pp. 14-16. 3. Gheorghe Stan, Unchiul Sam la el acas, Panfilius, Iai, 2002, pp. 212-229.
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UNIT 5 AMERICAN HISTORY
Unit Outline
5.1 5.1.1 5.1.2 5.1.3 5.2 5.2.1 5.2.2 5.3 5.3.1 5.3.2 5.3.3 5.3.4 5.4 5.4.1 5.4.2 5.4.3 5.5 5.5.1 5.5.2 5.5.3 5.5.4 5.5.5 5.5.6 Unit Objectives ................................................................................. 78 Settling Down ................................................................................... 78 Jamestown Settlement ....................................................................... 78 Mayflower Compact ............................................................................ 79 Boston ................................................................................................ 80 The American Revolution ................................................................ 81 Towards the Declaration of Independence ......................................... 81 Towards the American Constitution .................................................... 87 Falling Apart ..................................................................................... 90 The War of 1812 ................................................................................ 90 The Monroe Doctrine ......................................................................... 92 The Mexican War .............................................................................. 93 The Election of 1860 .......................................................................... 94 The American Civil War .................................................................. 96 Gettysburg and Vicksburg ................................................................. 97 The Election of 1864 ......................................................................... 99 The Compromise of 1877 ................................................................ 101 The Twentieth Century .................................................................. 103 The World Wars .............................................................................. 103 The Nuclear Arms Race .................................................................. 107 The Vietnam War ............................................................................. 109 The Civil Rights Race Riots ............................................................. 111 The New Left and the Counterculture .............................................. 115 The End of the Cold War ................................................................. 117 Summary ........................................................................................ 118 Key Terms ...................................................................................... 118 Glossary of Terms and Comments .............................................. 118 Gallery of Personalities ................................................................ 124 SAA No. 4 ....................................................................................... 130 Answers to SAQs .......................................................................... 131 Further Readings ........................................................................... 133 Appendix ........................................................................................ 135 Bibliography .................................................................................. 162
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Unit objectives
By the end of this unit, you should be able to describe the course that American History first followed as falling in piece, the various parts fitting in nicely and becoming one unanimous voice in the Revolution; describe the course that the independent American nation next followed as falling apart, the divided house of America seeking for a second, and better unity in the Civil War; describe the course that American History then followed as dedicated to the three principles of the French Revolution which constituted its basic model: Liberty, Equality, Fraternity.
5.1 Settling Down 5.1.1 Jamestown Settlement

Jamestown Settlement: the first permanent English colony In 1607, 13 years before the Pilgrims landed in Massachusetts, a group of 104 English men and boys began a settlement on the banks of Virginias James River. They were sponsored by the Virginia Company of London, whose stockholders hoped to make a profit from the resources of the New World. The community suffered terrible hardships in its early years, but managed to endure, earning the distinction of being Americas first permanent English colony.
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5.1.2 Mayflower Compact

An agreement reached by the Pilgrims on the ship the Mayflower in 1620, just before they landed at Plymouth Rock, through which the first American settlement based upon a social contract was created: In The Name of God, Amen. We, whose names are underwritten, the Loyal Subjects of our dread Sovereign Lord King James, by the Grace of God, of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, King, Defender of the Faith, &c. Having undertaken for the Glory of God, and Advancement of the Christian Faith, and the Honor of our King and Country, a Voyage to plant the first colony in the northern Parts of Virginia; Do by these Presents, solemnly and mutually in the Presence of God and one another, covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil Body Politick, for our better Ordering and Preservation, and Furtherance of the Ends aforesaid; And by Virtue hereof do enact, constitute, and frame, such just and equal Laws, Ordinances, Acts, Constitutions, and Offices, from time to time, as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the general Good of the Colony; unto which we promise all due Submission and Obedience. In Witness whereof we have hereunto subscribed our names at Cape Cod the eleventh of November, in the Reign of our Sovereign Lord King James of England, France, and Ireland, the eighteenth and of Scotland, the fifty-fourth. Anno Domini, 1620.
Mayflower Compact: the first American settlement based upon a social contract
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5.1.3 Boston
Established by the elder John Winthrop in 1630 as the main settlement of the Massachusetts Bay Company, Bostons deep harbor and advantageous geographic position helped it to become the busiest port in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, surpassing Plymouth, and Salem. From its founding until the 1760s, Boston was Americas largest, wealthiest, and most influential city. Early colonists believed that Boston was a community with a special covenant with God. Winthrops sermon, a City upon a Hill, captured this idea, which influenced every facet of Boston life, and made it imperative that colonists legislate morality, enforce marriage, enforce church attendance, enforce education in the Word of God, and enforce the persecution of sinners. These values molded an extremely stable and well-structured society in Boston, which became an early center of American Puritanism, with a vigorous intellectual life. The nations oldest public school, Boston Latin, was opened in 1635; Harvard, the nations oldest college, was founded at Cambridge in 1636; a public library was started in 1653; and the first newspaper in the colonies, the Newsletter, appeared in 1704. Puritan values of hard work, moral uprightness, and education remain a part of Bostons culture.
Boston: Americas largest, wealthiest and most influential city until the 1760s
SAQ 1 Fill in the blanks with the appropriate word or phrase In 1607, a group of 104 English men and boys began ................ (1) on the banks of Virginias James River. The community suffered ................ (2) in its early years, but managed to endure, earning the distinction of being ................. (3). An agreement was reached by the Pilgrims on the ship ... (4) in 1620, just before they landed at .................... (5), through which the first American settlement based upon ................. (6) was created. Established by ................. (7) in 1630 as the main settlement of .................... (8), Bostons deep harbor and advantageous geographic position helped it to become the busiest port in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, surpassing ................(9). From its founding until ................. (10), Boston was Americas largest, wealthiest, and most influential city. Compare your answers to those in the Answers to SAQs section at the end of the unit.
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5.2 The American Revolution 5.2.1 Towards the Declaration of Independence

The year 1763 could be considered as the beginning of an overt parting of the ways between the British Empire and the Colonies. It also represented the end of the Seven Years War (17561763), the European counterpart to the French and Indian War (1754-1763), which resulted in France relinquishing its territories in America (Canada, the Great Lakes and the upper Mississippi Valley) to the British Empire. This meant that Britain had to reorganize its now vast possessions, the old colonial system being no longer adequate for the defense and administration of the new territories. The measures that the Parliament adopted, however, did not meet with the approval of the colonies, often clashing with their interests. Britain needed a new imperial design, but the situation in America was anything but favorable to change. Long accustomed to a large measure of independence, the colonies were demanding more, not less, freedom, particularly now that the French menace had been eliminated. To put a new system into effect, and to tighten control, Parliament had to contend with colonists trained in selfgovernment and impatient with interference. The Royal Proclamation of 1763 (which reserved all the western territory between the Alleghenies, Florida, the Mississippi River and Quebec for use by Native Americans) was meant to stop the colonies westward expansion, so as not to cause a series of Indian wars. It was never effectively enforced, but this did not prevent it from being viewed as a blatant disregard of the colonists most elementary right of settling new lands. The British government, which needed more money to support its growing empire, also introduced a new financial policy, sustained by: The British financial policy is sustained by the 1764 Sugar Act, the 1764 Currency Act, the 1765 Quartering Act, the 1765 Stamp Act, the 1766 Declaratory Act, the 1767 Townshend Acts, and finally the 1773 Tea Act. the Sugar Act of 1764, which increased the duties on imported sugar and other items such as textiles, coffee, wines and indigo. It doubled the duties on foreign goods reshipped from England to the colonies and also forbade the import of foreign rum and French wines; the Currency Act of 1764, which by prohibiting the colonists from issuing any legal tender paper money threatened to destabilize the entire colonial economy of both the industrial North and agricultural South, thus uniting the colonists against it; the Quartering Act of 1765, which required colonies to provide royal troops with provisions and barracks, was equally objectionable from the colonial viewpoint. the Stamp Act (under which all printed materials were taxed, including: newspapers, pamphlets, bills, legal documents, licenses, almanacs, dice and playing cards) was met with the greatest resistance and eventually led to its being nullified. An underground organization that opposed to the Stamp Act was 81
The British Empire and the Colonies fall out gradually.
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formed in a number of colonial towns. Its members used violence and intimidation to force all of the British stamp agents to resign and also to stop many American merchants from ordering British trade goods. Moreover, in October 1765, the Stamp Act Congress convened in New York City, with representatives from nine of the colonies. The Congress prepared a resolution to be sent to King George III and the English Parliament, which requested the repeal of the Stamp Act and the Acts of 1764. The petition asserted that only colonial legislatures could tax colonial residents and that taxation without representation violated the colonists basic civil rights. In fact, no taxation without representation was the slogan that would draw many to the American cause against the mother country. In 1766 the Stamp Act was repealed and the Sugar Act was modified as well, but these actions were soon followed by the Declaratory Act (March 1766), which stated in part that Parliament had, hath, and of right ought to have, full power and authority to make laws and statutes of sufficient force and validity to bind the colonies and people of America, subjects of the crown of Great Britain, in all cases whatsoever. The next year, 1767, brought another series of measures known as the Townshend Acts. These were based on the premise that taxes imposed on goods imported by the colonies were legal while internal taxes (like the Stamp Act) were not. The new measures were also resisted, although with less violence, as merchants resorted once again to non-importation agreements. However, on March 5, 1770, two British regiments, dispatched to collect duties, stirred up the Boston population, and an altercation evolved into shooting, five Bostonians being killed. The incident was dubbed the Boston Massacre and was used for propaganda purposes. Consequently, the Townshend duties except for the one on tea were repealed in 1770 and three years of calm followed. In 1773, however, the East India Company was granted a monopoly on exported tea (the Tea Act), which inflamed the colonial traders, and ultimately culminated with the Boston Tea Party, when colonists disguised as Indians threw the tea overboard. The Tea Party was quickly restaged in other port cities in America and tended to polarize the sides in the widening dispute, as the Patriots (the ones who wanted to break away from the British Empire) and the Loyalists (who remained loyal to the Crown) became more ardent about their views. Official opinion in Britain almost unanimously condemned the Boston Tea Party as an act of vandalism and to restore order, new laws were passed by the Parliament, the so-called Restraining Acts*, or Coercive Acts.
The Restraining Acts: the American response to the British acts
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SAQ 2 True (T) or false (F)? 1. After the French and Indian war, France got Canada, the Great Lakes and the upper Mississippi Valley. 2. It was easy for the British to administer the new territories in North America. 3. The measures adopted by the British Parliament did not satisfy the colonies in America. 4. The Royal Proclamation of 1763, which was meant to stop the westward expansion of the colonists, did not prevent them to settle on new lands. 5. New taxes were imposed on the colonists (the Sugar Act, the Stamp Act). 6. The colonists obeyed all the new acts imposed on them by the British Crown and Parliament. 7. During the Boston Tea Party the colonists disguised as British not to be recognized by the British soldiers. 8. The First Continental Congress in Philadelphia adopted a Declaration that opposed the Coercive Acts taken by the British. Compare your answers to those in the Answers to SAQs section at the end of the unit.
Responses came in several forms. Massachusetts, long viewed with suspicion by the other colonies, now received the sympathy and grudging respect of its neighbors. Also, moderates in both England and America were surprised by the harshness of the measures and many began drifting toward radical views. Perhaps the most important result of the Coercive Acts was the summoning of the First Continental Congress in Philadelphia, in September 1774. There 56 delegates, representing every colony, except Georgia, adopted a Declaration of Rights and Grievances (also called Declaration and Resolves) that opposed the Coercive Acts, the Quebec Act, and the other measures taken by the British and undermining self-rule. The rights of the colonists were asserted, including the rights to life, liberty and property. The most important action taken by the Congress, however, was the formation of the Continental Association in which delegates agreed to a boycott of English imports, effected an embargo of exports to Britain, and discontinued the slave trade. The Association immediately assumed the leadership in the colonies as well.
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The opening engagements of the Revolution occurred in late April 1777. The Congress voted to go to war in midMay 1775.
The Declaration of Independence was adopted on July 4, 1776.
The battles of Lexington and Concord were the opening engagements of the American Revolution, on April 19, 1775. The British commander at Boston sought to avoid armed rebellion by sending a column of royal infantry from Boston to capture colonial military stores at Concord. News of his plan was dispatched to the countryside by Paul Revere, William Dawes, and Samuel Prescott. As the British advance column reached Lexington, they came upon a group of militia (the minutemen). After a brief exchange of shots in which several Americans were killed, the colonials withdrew, and the British continued to Concord. Here they destroyed some military supplies, fought another engagement, and began a hurried withdrawal to Boston, which cost them over 200 casualties. While the alarms of Lexington and Concord were still resounding, the Second Continental Congress met in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on May 10, 1775. By May 15, the Congress voted to go to war, inducting the colonial militias into continental service and appointing Colonel George Washington of Virginia as commanderin-chief of the American forces. In the meantime, the Americans would suffer high casualties at Bunker Hill just outside Boston. This was the first great battle of the Revolutionary War and it was an encouragement to the colonies, as it proved that American forces, with sufficient supplies, could inflict heavy losses on the British. Congress also ordered American expeditions to march northward into Canada by fall. Although the Americans later captured Montreal, they failed in a winter assault on Quebec, and eventually retreated to New York. Despite the outbreak of armed conflict, the idea of complete separation from England was still repugnant to some members of the Continental Congress. In July, the Continental Congress adopted the Olive Branch Petition, which expressed hope for reconciliation with Britain and appealed directly to the King for help in achieving this. The petition fell on deaf ears, however, and King George III issued a proclamation on August 23, 1775, declaring the colonies to be in a state of rebellion. There still remained the task, however, of gaining each colonys approval of a formal declaration. Thomas Paine's Common Sense helped persuade the majority of colonists to take the path of revolution. On May 10, 1776 a resolution was adopted calling for separation. Now only a formal declaration was needed. On June 7, Richard Henry Lee of Virginia introduced a resolution declaring That these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent states... Immediately, a committee of five, headed by Thomas Jefferson of Virginia, was appointed to prepare a formal declaration. Largely Jeffersons work, the Declaration of Independence, adopted July 4, 1776, not only announced the birth of a new nation, but also set forth a philosophy of human freedom that would become a dynamic force throughout the entire world. The Declaration drew upon French and English Enlightenment political philosophy, but one influence in particular stood out: John Lockes Second Treatise on Government, which took conceptions of the traditional rights of Englishmen and universalized them into the natural rights of all humankind. The Declarations opening passage echoed Lockes social-contract theory of government. It further
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The victory of Saratoga in 1777 was the turning point in the development of hostilities. The main British force surrendered in October 1781.
linked Lockes principles directly to the situation in the colonies. To fight for American independence was to fight for a government based on popular consent, rather than a government by a king, because the former could secure natural rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Thus, to fight for American independence was to fight on behalf of ones own natural rights. In short, the Declaration of Independence was made up of five distinct parts: the introduction; the preamble; the body, which could be divided into two sections; and a conclusion. The introduction stated that this document would declare the causes that had made it necessary for the American colonies to leave the British Empire. Having stated in the introduction that independence was unavoidable, even necessary, the preamble set out principles that were already recognized to be self-evident by most 18th century Englishmen, closing with the statement that if a long train of abuses and usurpations . . . evinces a design to reduce [a people] under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. The first section of the body of the Declaration gave evidence of the long train of abuses and usurpations heaped upon the colonists by King George III. The second section of the body stated that the colonists had appealed in vain to their British brethren for a redress of their grievances. Having stated the conditions that made independence necessary and having shown that those conditions existed in British North America, the Declaration concluded that these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved. After the early military engagements occurred at Bunker Hill (June 1775), in the Canadian campaign (1775-1776) and in the South, the action shifted to the New York campaign (1776). Washington temporarily reversed a series of defeats at Trenton and Princeton (late 1776 and early 1777), but British forces succeeded in taking Philadelphia in late 1777. The turning point of the War came at Saratoga (1777), a victory that enabled American diplomats to negotiate a French Alliance (1778). Hostilities continued in the Western Theater and the Southern Theater. The main British force surrendered at Yorktown in October 1781. Peace was achieved in the Treaty of Paris* (1783), with Benjamin Franklin* playing a prominent role.
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SAQ 3 True (T) or false (F)? 1. The American Revolution started at Lexington and Concord in April 1775. 2. During the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia (May 1775) George Washington was elected as the first President of the United States. 3. At the beginning of the Revolution, the Americans were victorious in a lot of battles. 4. The Declaration of Independence was fathered by George Washington. 5. The Declaration of Independence, largely the work of Thomas Jefferson, was adopted on July 4th. 6. The Declaration of Independence was influenced by John Lockes principles as well as by the ideas of the French Revolution. 7. After the adoption of the Declaration of Independence, the British stopped the war and went back home. Compare your answers to those in the Answers to SAQs section at the end of the unit.
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5.2.2 Towards the American Constitution

Following independence, the American states began the process of drafting new state constitutions, many of which reflected increased democratic elements (women and slaves excepted). The nations governing document was the Articles of Confederation whose weaknesses led to a so-called critical period in the 1780s. Desire to overcome it eventually led to the Federal Convention in the Philadelphia State House in May 1787. All of the states were represented except for Rhode Island, which declined to attend. George Washington, noted for his patience and fairness, was selected as the presiding officer. The Convention had only been authorized to draft amendments to the Articles of Confederation, but it soon discarded the idea and began working on a new constitution. The 18th-century statesmen who met in Philadelphia were adherents of Montesquieus concept of the balance of power in Montesquieus politics. This principle was supported by colonial experience and concept of the balance of power in strengthened by the writings of John Locke, with which most of the delegates were familiar. These influences led to the conviction that politics, three equal and coordinate branches of government should be strengthened by established. Legislative, executive and judicial powers were to be so John Lockes harmoniously balanced that no one could ever gain control. The writings, led to the delegates agreed that the legislative branch, like the colonial establishment of legislatures and the British Parliament, should consist of two houses. three equal and On these points there was unanimity within the assembly. But coordinate sharp differences arose as to the method of achieving them. branches of Representatives of the small states New Jersey, for instance government, in objected to changes that would reduce their influence in the national charge of the government by basing representation upon population rather than legislative, upon statehood, as was the case under the Articles of executive and Confederation. judicial powers. On the other hand, representatives of large states, like Virginia, argued for proportionate representation. This debate threatened to go on endlessly until Roger Sherman came forward with arguments for representation in proportion to the population of the states in one house of Congress, the House of Representatives, and equal representation in the other, the Senate. The alignment of large against small states then dissolved. But almost every succeeding question raised new problems, to be resolved only by new compromises. Northerners wanted slaves counted when determining each states tax share, but not in determining the number of seats a state would have in the House of Representatives. According to a compromise reached with little dissent, the House of Representatives would be calculated according to the number of free inhabitants plus three-fifths of the slaves. There was no serious difference on such national economic questions as paper money, laws concerning contract obligations or the role of women, who were excluded from politics. But there was a need for balancing sectional economic interests; for settling arguments as to the powers, term and selection of the chief 87
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executive; and for solving problems involving the tenure of judges and the kind of courts to be established. On September 17, 1787, after sixteen weeks of deliberation, the finished Constitution was signed by 39 of the 42 delegates present. The new government it prescribed came into existence on March 4, 1789, after fierce fights over ratification in many of the states. In summary, the basic principles of the American Constitution are: The finished Constitution, signed on September 17, 1787, was soon supplemented by 10 Amendments (the Bill of Rights) and then by 17 others. The three main branches of government are separate and distinct from one another. The powers given to each are balanced by the powers of the other two. Each branch serves as a check on the potential excess of the others in other words, a system of checks and balances*, making compromise in politics a matter of necessity, not choice. The Constitution, together with laws passed according to its provisions, and treatises entered into by the president and approved by the Senate, stands above all other laws, executive acts and regulations. All persons are equal before the law and are equally entitled to its protection. All states are equal, and none can receive special treatment from the federal government. Within the limits of the Constitution, each state must recognize and respect the laws of the others. State governments, like the federal government, must be democratic in form, with final authority resting with the people. The people have their right to change their form of national government by legal means defined in the Constitution itself.
Within two years there were ten Amendments to the Constitution and then seventeen others.
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SAQ 4 Put the words in the margin into their correct places: In addition to passing laws needed to get the government started, Congress had another very important job to do. It had to make some additions to the Constitution. Although the Founding Fathers had drawn up a fine plan for government, they had left out ................ (1) that the liberty-loving people of America considered most ................ (2). When the Constitution was given to the States for ................ (3), people said: Our Declaration Of Independence states that we, the people, have certain unalienable ................ (4). But nowhere in the Constitution is there any guaranteed free speech, freedom of religion, and other rights that belong to a free ................ (5). We want these rights written into our Constitution!. Many thoughtful men such as Thomas Jefferson and Samuel Adams ................ (6) that the Constitution should include a Bill of Rights. The men who wrote the Constitution wisely included rules for ................ (7) it. James Madison worked out a list of amendments which ................ (8) the rights that the people................ (9). [...] These rights cannot be taken away by a law of Congress nor by the President nor by the................ (10) Court. (from America is My Country, by Harriett Brown) a) rights b) believed c) guaranteed d) important e) supreme f) something g) wanted h) people i) amending j) approval
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5.3 Falling Apart 5.3.1 The War of 1812

In the years between 1803 and 1812 the United States relations with Great Britain grew worse, and the two countries moved rapidly toward war. The president, James Madison, laid before Congress a detailed report, showing several thousand instances in which the British had hurt American citizens in one way or another. In addition, northwestern settlers had suffered from attacks by Indians whom they believed had been incited by British agents in Canada. This led many Americans to favor conquest of Canada. Success in such an endeavor would eliminate British influence among the Indians and open up new lands for colonization. The desire to conquer Canada, coupled with deep resentment over impressment of sailors, generated war fervor, and in 1812 the United States declared war on Britain. As the country prepared for war, the United States suffered from internal divisions. While the South and West favored war, New York and New England opposed it because it interfered with their commerce. The declaration of war had been made with military preparations still far from complete. There were fewer than 7,000 regular soldiers, distributed in widely scattered posts along the coast, near the Canadian border and in the remote interior. These soldiers were to be supported by the undisciplined militia of the states. Hostilities between the two countries began with an invasion of Canada, which, if properly timed and executed, would have brought united action against Montreal. But the entire campaign miscarried and ended with the British occupation of Detroit. The U.S. Navy, however, scored successes and restored confidence. In addition, American privateers, swarming the Atlantic, captured 500 British vessels during the fall and winter months of 1812 and 1813. The campaign of 1813 centered on Lake Erie. General William Henry Harrison who would later become president led an army of militia, volunteers and regulars from Kentucky with the object of reconquering Detroit. On September 12, while he was still in upper Ohio, news reached him that Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry had annihilated the British fleet on Lake Erie. Harrison occupied Detroit and pushed into Canada, defeating the fleeing British and their Indian allies on the Thames River. The entire region now came under American control. Another decisive turn in the war occurred a year later when Commodore Thomas Macdonough won a point-blank gun duel with a British flotilla on Lake Champlain in upper New York. Deprived of naval support, a British invasion force of 10,000 men retreated to Canada. At about the same time, the British fleet was harassing the Eastern seaboard with orders to destroy and lay waste. On the night of August 24, 1814, an expeditionary force burst into Washington, D.C., home of the federal government, and left it in flames. President James Madison fled to Virginia.
The War of 1812 on Britain began with an invasion of Canada, came to an end in December 1814, and was followed by an era of good feelings.
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As the war continued, British and American negotiators each demanded concessions from the other. The British envoys decided to concede, however, when they learned of Macdonough victory on Lake Champlain. Urged by the Duke of Wellington to reach a settlement, and faced with the depletion of the British treasury due in large part to the heavy costs of the Napoleonic Wars, the negotiators for Great Britain accepted the Treaty of Ghent in December 1814. It provided for the cessation of hostilities, the restoration of conquests and a commission to settle boundary disputes. Unaware that a peace treaty had been signed, the two sides continued fighting in New Orleans, Louisiana. Led by General Andrew Jackson, the Americans scored the greatest land victory of the war. Following the War of 1812, there existed a superficial Era of Good Feelings in which partisan issues declined. Also, the war had produced positive economic effects. There was the growth of manufacturers during and after the war, technological developments including the steam engine. Demand for products as well as prices increased due to dropping imports and the needs of the war effort. The capital that inundated New England went to profitable manufacturers. Much of the countrys energy was channeled into westward movement, with settlers beginning to cross the Mississippi River, while the Native Americans were pushed farther west. The post-war prosperity (critically described in Alexis de Tocqueville's Democracy in America*) ended abruptly in the Panic of 1819, which was the first major financial crisis in the United States. The worst of this crisis was over by 1824, and the rest of the decade saw a gradual recovery of the U.S. economy. SAQ 5 Choose the correct answer: 1.In the years between 1803 and 1812: a) the United States' relations with Great Britain grew worse. b) the United States' relations with France grew worse. 2)The attacks on many American citizens: a) led many Americans to favor conquest of Canada. b) led many Americans to favor conquest of Mexico. 3)The vote for war ran as follows: a) New York and New England favored it. b) the South and West opposed it. 4) The Treaty of Ghent (December 1814) provided for: a) the cessation of hostilities. b) the restoration of conquests. c) the retreat of British forces from Canada. d) a commission to settle boundary disputes. Compare your answers to those in the Answers to SAQs section at the end of the unit. 91
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5.3.2 The Monroe Doctrine

During the first decades of the 19th century the people of Latin America, influenced by the American precedent, turned to revolution in order to gain their independence. By 1822 Central and South America had new, free countries. The same year, President James Monroe received authority to recognize them. In his seventh annual message to Congress, (December 2, 1823), he pronounced what become known as the Monroe Doctrine the refusal to tolerate any further extension of European domination in the Americas. It also expressed a spirit of solidarity with the newly independent republics of Latin America. These nations in turn recognized their political affinity with the United States by basing their new constitutions, in many instances, on the North American model. In his message, Monroe set forth certain principles, namely: o that the Western Hemisphere was no longer open for colonization; o that the political system of the Americas was different from Europe; o that the United States would regard any interference in Western hemispheric affairs as a threat to its security; o that the United States would refrain from participation in European wars and would not disturb existing colonies in the Western Hemisphere. The impact of the Monroe Doctrine was mixed. It was successful to the extent that the continental powers did not immediately attempt to revive the Spanish empire, but this was on account of the strength of the British Navy, not American military might. The Doctrine also was successful in that it kept France, Spain and other powers out of the region, but Britain would long remain the dominant trade power in Latin America. The Doctrine was, however, a failure because the Latin American nations resented the Big Brother behavior of the U.S.. SAQ 6 True (T) or False (F)? 1. According to the Monroe Doctrine, the United States did not tolerate any extension of European domination in North America. 2. It sympathized with the newly independent republics of Latin America. 3. According to the Doctrine, the Americans should consider any attempt of the European powers to extend their system to any portion of this hemisphere a dangerous thing to America. 4. The Monroe Doctrine stipulates that the Americans will have the right to interfere with the colonies of the European countries on the American continents. 5. The Americans will not interfere with the wars waged by the European countries. Compare your answers to those in the Answers to SAQs section at the end of the unit. 92
The Monroe Doctrine: the refusal to tolerate any further extension of European domination in the Americas
American History
5.3.3 The Mexican War

The Mexican War (18461848) was waged between the United States and Mexico, resulting in the cession by Mexico of lands now constituting all or most of the states of California, Arizona, New Mexico, The United States Nevada, Utah, and Colorado. It was a training ground for the American got all or most of officers who would fight in the Civil War, but it was also one of its the states of causes, as the question arose whether the new states would be slaveCalifornia, Arizona, free. New Mexico, Senator Henry Clay proposed a compromise, the measures of which were: Nevada, Utah and the admission of California as a free state; Colorado. the organization of New Mexico and Utah territories without mention of slavery, the status of that institution to be determined by the territories themselves when they were ready to be admitted as states (this formula came to be known as popular sovereignty); the prohibition of the slave trade in the District of Columbia; a more stringent fugitive slave law; and the settlement of Texas boundary claims by federal payment of 10 million dollars on the debt contracted by the Republic of Texas. Although this compromise did settle the situation for a period of time, it also led to Northerners becoming more supportive towards the antislavery movement. SAQ 7 Choose the correct answer: 1. President James K. Polk wanted to a) buy California from Mexico b) buy Texas from New Mexico c) conquer Mexico d) conquer New Mexico 2. President Polk proposed to ask the American Congress a) to buy California b) to declare war to Mexico c) to order General Zachary Taylor to retreat from the Mexican border d) to wait until the Mexicans open the fire 3. On April 25, 1846 Mexican troops a) retreated from the border b) accepted the money offered by the Americans c) attacked the American troops d) replaced their commander, Santa Ana 4. After the war it was signed the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo on February 2, 1848. The terms of the Treaty were __________ a) breathtaking b) humiliating c) what the President expected to be d) what the Mexicans wished 5. The United Stated agreed to pay __________ for the land stretching westward to Oregon and the ocean. a) 13 million b) 15 million c) 25 million d) 75 million Compare your answers to those in the Answers to SAQs section at the end of the unit. 93
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5.3.4 The Election of 1860

As the territory west of the states of Missouri and Iowa was being rapidly settled, thus prompting the need for some form of local government, the issue of slavery resurfaced. Stephen A. Douglas, Democratic senior senator, initiated the Kansas-Nebraska Act, passed in 1854, which divided the territory west of the states of Missouri and Iowa and the territory of Minnesota into two new territories, Kansas and Nebraska. The law was extremely controversial because it did not exclude slavery from either territory, despite the fact that the Missouri Compromise prohibited slavery in these territories. By effectively repealing the Missouri Compromise, the law outraged many northerners and it led to the collapse of the Whig party. In its place, a new organization rose, the Republican Party, whose primary demand was that slavery be excluded from all territories. Most importantly, the Kansas-Nebraska Act moved the nation closer to civil war, as proslavery settlers from Missouri and antislavery newcomers from the northeastern states that came to Kansas ended up in armed conflict. The territory was soon called bleeding Kansas. In 1858, in the election of Illinois for the U.S. Senate, Stephen A. Douglas of the Democratic Party was opposed by the Republican Abraham Lincoln. The latter gave a famous speech after being chosen to run for Senator. In it he said, A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe that the government cannot last as long as America is half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to fall apart the house to fall. I do expect that it will become either all one thing or all the other either all slave or all free. Either the people against slavery will stop it forever, or it will become lawful in all the states, old and new, north and south alike. Fundamental to Lincolns argument was his conviction that slavery must be dealt with as a moral wrong. It violated the statement in the Declaration of Independence that all men are created equal, and it ran counter to the intentions of the Founding Fathers. Lincoln supported a national legislation that would restrict and eventually abolish slavery and challenged the concept of popular sovereignty, arguing that slavery in the western territories was not only the concern of the local inhabitants, but of the United States as a whole. During the campaign, the two candidates met in seven debates which drew the attention of the entire nation. Although Lincoln lost the election by a small margin, he achieved the status of a national figure. In the presidential election of 1860, the Republicans chose Lincoln as their candidate, whereas the Democrats were not united. Southerners split from the party and nominated Vice President John C. Breckenridge of Kentucky for president. Stephen A. Douglas was the nominee of northern Democrats. Diehard Whigs from the border states formed into the Constitutional Union Party, nominated John C. Bell of Tennessee. Lincoln and Douglas competed in the North, and Breckenridge and Bell in the South. Lincoln won only 39 percent of the popular vote, but had a clear majority of 180 electoral votes, carrying all 18 free states. Bell won Tennessee, Kentucky and Virginia; Breckenridge took the other slave states except for Missouri, which was won by Douglas. Despite his poor electoral showing, Douglas trailed only Lincoln in the popular vote.
The issue of slavery resurfaced. Abraham Lincoln: A house divided against itself cannot stand.
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SAQ 8 Choose the correct answer: 1. When he delivered his famous speech A House Divided in 1858, Abraham Lincoln was: a) a candidate for the American Presidency b) a candidate for US Congress (Senate) c) a candidate for the post of a governor in Illinois 2. The word house refers to: a) the White House b) the United States c) Lincolns house in Springfield, Illinois 3. Lincoln was a ................... a) supporter of slavery b) fighter against the black peoples rights c) supporter of the idea that half of America should keep slavery and the other half should abolish it 4. After the famous debate with Stephen Douglass Lincoln ................ a) became President of USA b) became Senator of Illinois c) lost the elections 5. Lincoln became President of the USA representing a) the Whig Party b) the Democratic Party c) the Republican Party 6. For the Presidential Elections of '86 Lincoln was ................... a) certain to succeed b) not credited with many chances to win c) killed 7. The famous Gettysburg Address was ................... a) the address of the White House b) a better read by Lincoln in front of the Congress c) a speech delivered at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, on November 19, 1863 8. After the 1864 election, Abraham Lincoln ................... a) gave the Proclamation of Emancipation b) offered a plan for reconstruction c) aimed to punish severely the seceding States 9. He was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth because the latter .......... a) considered the he was doing a patriotic thing b) hated Lincoln and his family c) Lincoln had punished him 10. After A. Lincoln, the President of the United States was ................. a) a Democrat b) a Whig c) a Republican Compare your answers to those in the Answers to SAQs section at the end of the unit. 95
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5.4 The American Civil War

As soon as the result of the 1860 election was certain, South Carolina that had long been waiting for an event that would unite the South against the antislavery forces declared that the Union South Carolina was now subsisting between South Carolina and other states under the the first state to name of the United States of America is hereby dissolved, thus dissolve the Union. being the first state to secede on December 20, 1860. By February, Mississippi, Florida, six more Southern states (Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and Texas) followed suit. The Confederate States of Louisiana and America (also called the Confederacy) was formed on February 4, Texas followed its 1861, and Jefferson Davis was selected as its first President the example. next day. The attempts of the seceding states to take over federal property within their borders led to the first military engagement of the Civil War, as on April 12, 1861 the South fired upon the Federal troops stationed at Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina until the troops surrendered. This action, as well as Abraham Lincoln* mobilizing the militia, prompted the state of Virginia to secede. It was soon followed by Abraham Lincoln others (Arkansas, North Carolina and Tennessee), thus raising the mobilized the number of the Confederate States to eleven. militia, which The North held many advantages over the South during the prompted the state Civil War. Its population was several times that of the South, a of Virginia to secede, to be soon potential source for military enlistees and civilian manpower. The South lacked the substantial number of factories and industries of followed by the North that produced much needed war materials. The North had Arkansas, North a better transportation network, mainly highways, canals, and Carolina and railroads, which could be easily used to re-supply military forces in Tennessee. the field. At sea, the Union navy was more capable and dominant, while the army was better trained and better supplied. The rest of the world also recognized the United States as a legitimate government, allowing U.S. diplomats to obtain loans and other trade concessions. The South had fewer advantages, but it held many that would threaten attempts by the North to end the rebellion. The South was able to fight on its home terrain, and it could win the war simply by continuing to exist after the hostilities ended later. The South also had a military tradition that encouraged young men to serve in the armed forces or attend a military school; many had served the U.S. military prior to the Civil War, only to resign and fight for their states and family. In addition, the South had the leadership of great commanders, including Robert E. Lee, Joseph Johnston, and Stonewall Jackson.
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5.4.1 Gettysburg and Vicksburg

None of the Confederate victories was decisive. The federal government simply mustered new armies and tried again. Believing that the Norths crushing defeat at Chancellorsville gave him his chance, Lee struck northward into Pennsylvania, in July 1863, almost reaching the state capital at Harrisburg. A strong Union force intercepted Lees march at Gettysburg, where, in a titanic three-day battle the largest of the Civil War the Confederates made a valiant effort to break the Union lines. They failed, and Lees veterans, after crippling losses, fell back to the Potomac. More than 3,000 Union soldiers and almost 4,000 Confederates died at Gettysburg; wounded and missing totaled more than 20,000 on each side. On November 19, 1863, Lincoln dedicated a new national cemetery at Gettysburg with perhaps the most famous address in U.S. history, the so-called Gettysburg Address*. On the Mississippi, Union control was blocked at Vicksburg, where the Confederates had strongly fortified themselves on bluffs too high for naval attack. By early 1863 Grant began to move below and around Vicksburg, subjecting the position to a six-week siege. On July 4, he captured the town, together with the strongest Confederate Army in the West. The river was now entirely in Union hands. The Confederacy was broken in two, and it became almost impossible to bring supplies from Texas and Arkansas. The Northern victories at Vicksburg and Gettysburg in July 1863 marked the turning point of the war, although the bloodshed continued for more than a year-and-a-half. Lincoln brought Grant east and made him commander-in-chief of all Union forces. In May 1864 Grant advanced deep into Virginia and met Lees Confederate Army in the three-day Battle of the Wilderness. Losses on both sides were heavy, but unlike other Union commanders, Grant refused to retreat. Instead, he attempted to outflank Lee, stretching the Confederate lines and pounding away with artillery and infantry attacks. In the West, Union forces gained control of Tennessee in the fall of 1863 with victories at Chattanooga and nearby Lookout Mountain, opening the way for General William T. Sherman to invade Georgia. Sherman outmaneuvered several smaller Confederate armies, occupied the state capital of Atlanta, then marched to the Atlantic coast, systematically destroying railroads, factories, warehouses and other facilities in his path. His men, cut off from their normal supply lines, ravaged the countryside for food. From the coast, Sherman marched northward, and by February 1865, he had taken Charleston, South Carolina, where the first shots of the Civil War had been fired. Sherman, more than any other Union general, understood that destroying the will and morale of the South was as important as defeating its armies. Grant, meanwhile, lay siege to Petersburg, Virginia, for nine months, before Lee, in March 1865, abandoned both Petersburg and the Confederate capital of Richmond in an attempt to retreat south. But it was too late, and on April 9, 1865, surrounded by huge Union armies, Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox Courthouse. Although scattered fighting continued elsewhere for several months, the Civil War was over. 97
The northern victories of July 1863 marked the turning point of the war.
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SAQ 9 Fill in the blanks with the appropriate word or phrase: South Carolina is the first state to have dissolved the Union. By February, six more Southern states, ............................................ (1), ............................................ (2), ............................................ (3), ............................................ (4), ............................................ (5) and ............................................ (6), followed suit. More than ............................................ (7) and almost 4,000 Confederates died at Gettysburg. On November 19, 1863, Lincoln dedicated a ............................................ (8) at Gettysburg with perhaps the most famous address in U.S. history, the so-called .................................... (9). Compare your answers to those in the Answers to SAQs section at the end of the unit.
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5.4.2 The Election of 1864

Abraham Lincoln, the Republican nominee, announced a plan for reconstruction. For the election of 1864 there were only two candidates Abraham Lincoln, nominated by the Republican Party, and the Democrat George McClellan, the general whom Lincoln had dismissed. After three years of a war that showed no signs of an immediate victory, and plans to continue until victory was achieved, Lincoln was not credited with too many chances to win. The capture of Atlanta and a series of other victories, however, represented a turning point, and Lincoln was re-elected for another term. Abraham Lincoln had thought about the process of restoring the Union from the earliest days of the war. His guiding principles were to accomplish the task as rapidly as possible and ignore calls for punishing the South. In late 1863, Lincoln announced a formal plan for reconstruction: a general amnesty would be granted to all who would take an oath of loyalty to the United States and pledge to obey all federal laws pertaining to slavery; high Confederate officials and military leaders were to be temporarily excluded from the process; when one-tenth of the number of voters who had participated in the 1860 election had taken the oath within a particular state, then that state could launch a new government and elect representatives to Congress. The states of Louisiana, Arkansas and Tennessee rapidly acted to comply with these terms. However, the Lincoln plan was not acceptable to Congress. The Radical Republicans voiced immediate opposition to Lincolns reconstruction plan, objecting to its leniency and lack of protections for freed slaves. Congress refused to accept the rehabilitation of Tennessee, Arkansas and Louisiana, and proposed another plan, which was, however, vetoed by Lincoln.
President Lincoln was assassinated on April 14, 1865.
The confrontation between Lincoln and the Congress over competing reconstruction plans never occurred. The president was assassinated on April 14, 1865. His successor, Andrew Johnson of Tennessee, envisioned the following: pardons would be granted to those taking a loyalty oath; no pardons would be available to high Confederate officials and persons owning property valued in excess of 20,000 dollars; 99
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a state needed to abolish slavery before being readmitted; a state was required to repeal its secession ordinance before being readmitted. Most of the seceded states began compliance with the presidents program. Congress was not in session, so there was no immediate objection from that quarter. However, Congress reconvened in December and refused to seat the Southern representatives. The postwar Congress pushed through a number of measures designed to assist the freed men, but also demonstrate the supremacy of Congress over the president. These measures included the Civil Rights Act of 1866, the Fourteenth Amendment, the Tenure of Office Act and the Army Appropriations Act. The culmination of this process occurred in 1867 and 1868 when Congress passed a series of Reconstruction Acts; these measures were implemented and constituted the final restoration program for the South.
SAQ 10 True (T) or False (F)? 1. For the 1864 election, one of the candidates was Abraham Lincoln, nominated by the Democratic Party. 2. Lincoln's guiding principle was to punsish the South. 3. Lincoln's reconstruction plan stipulated that all who would take an oath of loyalty to the United States should be granted a general amnesty. Compare your answers to those in the Answers to SAQs section at the end of the unit.
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5.4.3 The Compromise of 1877

The Compromise of 1877 was a compromise made necessary by the disputed Election of 1876. While an Electoral Commission The Compromise awarded the election to Rutherford B. Hayes, Southern Democrats of 1877: A series of planned to block the Commissions report. The compromise resolved secret negotiations the constitutional crisis through a series of secret negotiations involving involving Republican and Democratic politicians, and various interest Republican and groups, most notably the railroad companies. The compromise Democrat stipulated that the South would acknowledge Hayes as President if politicians, ending the Republicans acceded to various demands, including: reconstruction in the removal of Federal troops from the former Confederate states the former these troops only remained in Louisiana, South Carolina, and Confederacy. Florida, but the Compromise finalized the process; the appointment of at least one Southern Democrat to Hayes cabinet; the construction of a transcontinental railroad in the South; legislation to help industrialize the South. This compromise effectively ended Reconstruction in the former Confederacy, and the autonomy of the Democratic Party in the South was cemented with the ascent of the Redeemer governments that displaced the Republican carpetbagger governments. After the Compromise of 1877, the South generally voted solidly Democratic until the middle of the 20th century. The end of Reconstruction essentially signaled the end of civil rights for African Americans; as the years passed after the end of the war, the North lost interest in continuing to pursue the matter and instead turned its attention towards other concerns. The South was allowed to establish a segregated society in return for accepting its integration into the Union, and the initial civil rights measures were eroded over time. The South also swayed Congress to pass the Posse Comitatus Act, which prohibited federal military authorities from exercising localized civilian police powers. In the aftermath of Reconstruction, much of the civil rights legislation was later overturned by the United States Supreme Court. Most notably, the court suggested in the Slaughterhouse Case (1873), and then held in the Civil Rights Cases (1883), that the Fourteenth Amendment only gave Congress the power to outlaw public, rather than private discrimination. Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) went even further, providing that state-mandated segregation was legal as long as the statute or ordinance provided for separate but equal facilities. It was not until 1964 that the federal government made a concerted attack on the system of private racial discrimination when it passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which outlawed discrimination in public accommodations, i.e., restaurants, hotels and businesses open to the public, as well as in private schools and workplaces.
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SAQ 11 Fill in the blanks with the correct words in the margin: ''Reconstruction, for better or .............. (1), was officially ended. For generations to come, southern blacks were .............. (2) to eke out a threadbare living under conditions scarcely better than .............. (3). As sharecroppers or tenant farmers, they .............. (4) at the economic mercy of former .............. (5). Segregated in woefully inferior schools, they had few .............. (6) to improve their lot through education. Denied the ballot by fraud and intimidation, they lacked the political .............. (7) to protest their condition. Legally separated from ..............(8) in virtually all public .............. (9), including railroad cars and even restrooms, they were assaulted daily by galling reminders of their second- class .............. (10). (The American Pageant , by Thomas A. Bailey and David M. Kennedy) a) b) c) d) s e) f) g) h) i) j) slavery whites condemned opportunitie masters tools were worse facilities citizenship
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5.5 The Twentieth Century 5.5.1 The World Wars

In 1914, when World War I started in Europe, the United States claimed their neutrality. They entered the war on the side of the Allies on April 6, 1917. The nations interest in world peace had already been expressed through participation in the Hague Conferences, and when in 1914 World War I started in Europe, president Woodrow Wilson made efforts to keep the United States neutral. In fact, he was reelected in 1916, on the strength of his partys slogan: He kept us out of war. However, American sympathies and interests were actively with the Allies (especially with Great Britain and France), and although Britain and Germany both violated American neutral rights on the seas, German submarine attacks constituted the more dramatic provocation. On April 6, 1917, the United States entered the war on the side of the Allies and provided significant manpower and supplies for the Allied victory. The U.S. Navy was crucial in helping the British break the submarine blockade, and in the summer of 1918, during a long-awaited German offensive, fresh American troops, under the command of General John J. Pershing, played a decisive role on land. Later in November, American forces took an important part in the vast Meuse-Argonne offensive, which cracked Germanys Hindenburg Line. President Wilson contributed greatly to an early end to the war by defining the war aims of the Allies, and by insisting that the struggle was being waged not against the German people but against their autocratic government. His famous Fourteen Points, submitted to the Senate in January 1918 as the basis for a just peace, called for abandonment of secret international agreements, a guarantee of freedom of the seas, the removal of tariff barriers between nations, reductions in national armaments, and an adjustment of colonial claims with due regard to the interests of the inhabitants affected. Other points sought to ensure self-rule and unhampered economic development for European nationalities. The Fourteenth Point constituted the keystone of Wilsons arch of peace the formation of an association of nations to afford mutual guarantees of political independence and territorial integrity to great and small states alike. By the summer of 1918, when Germanys armies were being beaten back, the German government appealed to Wilson to negotiate on the basis of the Fourteen Points. The president conferred with the Allies, who acceded to the German proposal. An armistice was concluded on November 11. It was Wilsons hope that the final treaty would have the character of a negotiated peace, but he feared that the passions aroused by the war would cause the Allies to make severe demands. In this he was right. The concept of self-determination proved impossible to implement. Persuaded that his greatest hope for peace, the League of Nations, would never be realized unless he made concessions to the Allies, Wilson compromised on the issues of self-determination, open diplomacy and other specific points during the peace negotiations in Paris. 103
In President Wilsons 14 points (January 1918), it was stated that the struggle was being waged not against the German people, but against their government.
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America played a key role in the peace negotiations of Versailles during 1919.
However, he resisted the demands of the French premier, Georges Clemenceau, to detach the entire Rhineland from Germany, prevented France from annexing the Saar Basin, and frustrated a proposal to charge Germany with the whole cost of the war although the Versailles Peace Treaty did levy a heavy burden of reparations upon Germany. In the end, there was little left of Wilsons proposals for a generous and lasting peace but the League itself. Wilsons belief in a moral and legal basis for war and peace had inspired the nation. However, when events did not live up to this optimistic standard, Wilsonian idealism gave way to disillusion, and the nation withdrew into isolationism. Isolationist sentiment prevailed during the 1920s, and while the United States played a major role in the naval conferences for disarmament and in the engineering of the KelloggBriand Pact, which outlawed war, its general lack of interest in international concerns was compensated for in the domestic policies and achievements of the so-called ''New Era''*. SAQ 12 True (T) or False (F) ? 1. The United States entered World War I at the outbreak of hostilities in Europe. 2. President Wilson insisted that World War I was being waged not against the German people but against their autocratic government. 3. The League of Nations was expected to afford guarantees of territorial integrity to all the states, and political independence to the beligerant states. 4. The concept of self-determination was easy to implement, even without concessions to the Allies. Compare your answers to those in the Answers to SAQs section at the end of the unit.
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By the late 1930s the Axis nations in Europe (Germany and Italy) as well as Japan in East Asia had already disrupted world peace. As wars began in China, Ethiopia, and Spain, the United States recovering after the Great Depression* sought at first to America once safeguard its insular security by the Neutrality Act. As Axis aggression led to the outbreak of the European war in September again stated her 1939, the United States still tried to stay out of it, despite increasing neutrality at the sympathy for the Allies. But after the fall of France in June, 1940, the beginning of the Second World War, support of the United States for Britain became more overt. In March in September 1939. 1941, lend-lease aid (arrangement for the transfer of war supplies, including food, machinery, and services, to nations whose defense was considered vital to the defense of the United States in World War II was extended to the British and, in November, to the Russians. The threat of war had already caused the adoption of selective service to build the armed strength of the nation. Hemisphere defense was enlarged, and the United States drew closer to Great Britain with the issuance of the Atlantic Charter. In Asian affairs the Roosevelt government had vigorously protested Japans career of conquest and its establishment of the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere. After the Japanese America entered takeover of French Indochina (July 1941), with its inherent threat to the war following the Philippines, the U.S. government froze all Japanese assets in the Japanese the United States. Diplomatic relations grew taut, but U.S.-Japanese attack on discussions were still being carried on when, on December 7, 1941, December 7, 1941 Japanese bombs fell on Pearl Harbor, a major United States naval at Pearl Harbor base in Hawaii. The United States promptly declared war, and four days later Germany and Italy declared war on the United States. The country efficiently mobilized its vast resources, transforming factories to war plants and building a mighty military force which included most able-bodied young men and many young women. The creation of a great number of government war agencies to control and coordinate materials, transportation, and manpower brought unprecedented government intervention into national life. Rationing, price controls, and other devices were instituted in an attempt to prevent serious inflation or dislocation in the civilian economy. The war underscored the importance of U.S. resources and the prestige and power of the United States in world affairs. A series of important conferences outlined the policies for the war and the programs for the peace after victory; among these were the Moscow Conferences, the Casablanca Conference, the Cairo Conference, the Tehran Conference, and the Yalta Conference, at which Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, and Joseph Stalin planned for postwar settlement. Roosevelt was also a key figure in the plans for the On August 6, 1945 United Nations. After Roosevelts sudden death in April 1945, Harry S. Truman two atomic bombs became President. A month later, the European war ended when were launched by Germany surrendered on May 7, 1945. Truman went to the Potsdam an American Conference (JulyAugust), where various questions of the aircraft on peacetime administration of Europe were settled, many on an ad Hiroshima and interim basis, pending the conclusion of peace treaties. Before the Nagasaki, thus war ended with the defeat of Japan, the United States developed ending the war. and used a fateful and revolutionary weapon, the atomic bomb. The 105
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Japanese surrender, announced August 14, 1945, and signed September 2, brought the war to a close.
SAQ 13 Choose the right answer: 1. When WW II started in Europe, the United States a) tried to stay out of it b) declared war on Japan c) declared war on Germany d) declared war on Russia 2. After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, on December 7, 1941, the United States promptly declared war on................................. a) Germany and Japan b) Germany, Japan and Italy c) Japan d) Japan and Italy 3. Immediately after WW II the United States was marked by ............ a) a very important economic development b) a period of laisser faire c) an economic crisis d) peoples returning to a country life 4. The Great Depression began during the presidency of .................. a) Franklin D. Roosevelt b) Calvin Coolidge c) Woodrow Wilson d) Herbert Hoover 5. The Depression left millions of Americans jobless, homeless and penniless, many people depending on a) the President b) the Government c) Gods mercy d) Foreign relief 6. The New Deal, initiated by Franklin D Roosevelts Administration instituted ........................ measures a) subversive b) weak c) vigorous d) extravagant 7. President Roosevelt was a great American President who died ................. a) before the end of WW II b) in his bed c) on the battlefield d) after the end of WW II Compare your answers to those in the Answers to SAQs section at the end of the unit.
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5.5.2 The Nuclear Arms Race

Dwight D. Eisenhower, who had assumed the presidency in 1953, was a war hero, with a natural, homey manner that made him widely popular. In the postwar years, he served as army chief of staff, the president of Columbia University and finally head of NATO. Although he was skillful at getting people to work together, he sought to play a restrained public role. Still, he shared with Truman a basic view of American foreign policy. Eisenhower, too, perceived communism as a monolithic force struggling for world supremacy. He believed that Moscow, under leaders such as Stalin, was trying to orchestrate worldwide revolution. In office, Eisenhower and his secretary of state, John Foster Dulles, argued that containment did not go far enough to stop Soviet expansion. Rather, a more aggressive policy of liberation was necessary, to free those subjugated by communism. But for all of the rhetoric, when democratic rebellions broke out in areas under Soviet domination such as in Hungary in 1956 the United States stood back as Soviet forces suppressed them. Eisenhowers basic commitment to contain communism remained, and to that end he increased American reliance on a nuclear shield. The Manhattan Project during World War II had created the first atomic bombs. In 1950 Truman had authorized the development of a new and more powerful hydrogen weapon. Now Eisenhower proposed a policy of massive retaliation. The United States, under this doctrine, was prepared to use atomic weapons if the nation or its vital interests were attacked. In practice, however, Eisenhower deployed U.S. military forces with great caution, resisting all suggestions to consider the use of nuclear weapons in Indochina, where the French were ousted by Vietnamese communist forces in 1954, or in Taiwan, where the United States pledged to defend the Nationalist Chinese regime against attack by the Peoples Republic of China. In the Middle East, Eisenhower resisted the use of force when British and French forces occupied the Suez Canal and Israel invaded the Sinai in 1956, following Egypts nationalization of the canal. Under heavy U.S. pressure, British, French and Israeli forces withdrew from Egypt, which retained control of the canal. SAQ 14 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. True (T) or False (F)? Dwight D. Eisenhower was a famous person before he became the President of the United States (President of Columbia University, Head of NATO, Chief of Staff of the American Army). He was a friend to Stalin, the Soviet Union leader. Eisenhower s foreign policy was to free the states subjugated by communism and to stop the Soviet expansion. The first hydrogen bomb was created during his presidency. Eisenhower proposed a policy of using the atomic weapons if the nation was attacked. He resisted all suggestions to consider the use of nuclear bombs in Indochina, in Taiwan, in the Suez War, etc.
The Nuclear Arms Race: Americas commitment to contain communism
Compare your answers to those in the Answers to SAQs section at the end of the unit. 107
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5.5.3 The Vietnam War

The Election of 1960 returned the Democrats to power with John F. Kennedy narrowly defeating Richard Nixon. President Kennedy faced foreign crises in the Bay of Pigs fiasco, the erection of the Berlin Wall and the Cuban Missile crisis. In November 1963, Kennedy was assassinated and was succeeded by Lyndon B. Johnson, who launched a war on poverty and worked for the passage of the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act. The Election of 1968 brought Nixon to power with a secret plan to end the war in Vietnam, which dragged on despite turmoil in colleges and universities. Cambodia was invaded and peace talks were opened. Nixon visited China and negotiated the Salt I Treaty with the Soviet Union. The Watergate burglary occurred with little initial notice, and Nixon retained office after the Election of 1972. U.S. forces were withdrawn from Vietnam and the Arabs imposed an oil embargo. In 1974, Nixon resigned and was followed in the presidency by Gerald R. Ford. The Vietnam War was a prolonged military conflict (1954 1975) between the Communist forces of North Vietnam supported by China and the Soviet Union and the non-Communist forces of South Vietnam supported by the United States. The war began soon after the Geneva Conference provisionally divided Vietnam into the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam) and the Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam). It escalated from a Vietnamese civil war into a limited international conflict in which the United States was deeply involved, and did not end, despite peace agreements in 1973, until North Vietnams successful offensive in 1975 resulted in South Vietnams collapse and the unification of Vietnam by the North. In 1965 Johnson stationed 22,000 troops in South Vietnam to support the anticommunist regime. The South Vietnamese government had long been allied with the United States. The North Vietnamese under Ho Chi Minh were backed by the Soviet Union and China. North Vietnam, in turn, supported the National Liberation Front, which drew its ranks from the South Vietnamese working class and peasantry. Seeking to contain Communist expansion, Johnson increased the number of troops to 575,000 in 1967. Neither the Soviet Union nor China intervened directly in the conflict; they did, however, supply large amounts of aid and material to the North and supported them diplomatically. While the early years of the war saw significant U.S. casualties the administration assured the public that the war was winnable, and would in the near future result in a U.S. victory. American publics faith in the light at the end of the tunnel was shattered, on January 30, 1968, when the enemy, supposedly on the verge of collapse, mounted the Tet Offensive in South Vietnam. Although neither of these offensives accomplished any military objectives, the surprising capacity of an enemy that was supposedly on the verge of collapse to even launch such an offensive convinced many in the U.S. that victory was impossible. A vocal and growing peace movement centered on college campuses became a prominent feature as the counter culture of the
The Vietnam War (1954-1975) escalated from a Vietnamese civil war into a limited international conflict.
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1960s adopted a vocal anti-war position. Especially unpopular was the draft that threatened to send any young man to fight in the jungles of Southeast Asia. Elected in 1968, U.S. President Richard M. Nixon began a policy of slow disengagement from the war. The goal was to gradually build up the South Vietnamese Army so that it could fight the war on its own. This policy became the cornerstone of the socalled Nixon Doctrine. As applied to Vietnam, the doctrine was called Vietnamization. The goal of Vietnamization was to enable the South Vietnamese army to increasingly hold its own against the North Vietnamese Army. The morality of U.S. conduct of the war continued to be an issue under the Nixon presidency. In 1969, it came to light that Lt. William Calley, a platoon leader in Vietnam, had led a massacre of Vietnamese civilians (including small children) during the My Lai massacre a year earlier. In 1970, Nixon ordered illegal military incursions into Cambodia in order to destroy communist sanctuaries bordering on South Vietnam. The U.S. pulled out in 1973 and the conflict finally ended in 1975 when the North Vietnamese took Saigon, now Ho Chi Minh City. Millions of Vietnamese died as a consequence of the Vietnam War. Vietnam released figures on April 3, 1995 that a total of one million Vietnamese combatants and four million civilians were killed in the war. The accuracy of these figures has generally not been challenged. The official estimate for U.S. death toll is about 58,000, and with thousands more missing and presumed dead.
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SAQ 15 Which of the four variants is not correct? 1. During John F. Kennedy s presidency the Americans faced the following crisis: a) the Berlin wall was built b) the Soviet Union wanted to install missiles c) the American intervention at the Bay of Pigs, Cuba d) the Vietnam War started 2. The following outstanding Americans were assassinated a) Robert Kennedy b) John F. Kennedy c) Lyndon B. Johnson d) Martin Luther King 3. Three of the American presidents were impeached. Here is a list of four. Which one was not? a) Bill Clinton b) Martin Van Buren c) Richard Nixon d) Andrew Johnson 4. a) The Vietnam war was a conflict between communist forces (North Vietnam supported by China and the Soviet Union) and the non- communist forces of the South Vietnam ( supported by the United States) b) The Americans sent troops in Vietnam when the president was Lyndon Johnson c) The Vietnam War was stopped during Johnson s Administration d) During the Vietnam War the American casualties were enormous ( 58 000 dead people) 5. a) Richard Nixon wanted to put an end to the war b) His policy was to build up the South Vietnamese Army c) The morality of U.S. troops in Vietnam was a serious issue under Nixon s presidency d) The Americans did not kill Vietnamese civilians Compare your answers to those in the Answers to SAQs section at the end of the unit.
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5.5.4 The Civil Rights Race Riots

The Civil Rights Race Riots: bringing segregation to an end In the postwar years, African Americans began to challenge discrimination and to argue that the time was ripe for racial equality. Harry Truman supported the civil rights movement. He believed in political equality, though not in social equality, and recognized the growing importance of the black urban vote. When apprised in 1946 of lynchings and other forms of mob violence still practiced in the South, he appointed a committee on civil rights to investigate discrimination based on race and religion. The report, issued the next year, documented blacks second-class status in American life. It asserted the need for the federal government to secure the rights guaranteed to all citizens. Truman responded by sending a 10-point civil rights program to Congress. When Southern Democrats, angry about a stronger civil rights stance, left the party in 1948, Truman issued an executive order barring discrimination in federal employment, ordered equal treatment in the armed forces and appointed a committee to work toward an end to military segregation. The last military restrictions ended during the Korean War. Blacks in the South enjoyed few, if any, civil and political rights. More than 1 million black soldiers fought in World War II, but those who came from the South could not vote. Blacks who tried to register faced the likelihood of beatings, loss of job, loss of credit or eviction from their land. Lynchings still occurred, and Jim Crow laws enforced segregation of the races in street cars, trains, hotels, restaurants, hospitals, recreational facilities and employment. Blacks took matters into their own hands, determined to overturn the judicial doctrine, established in the court case Plessy v. Ferguson in 1896, that segregation of black and white students in schools was constitutional if facilities were separate but equal. That decree had been used for decades to sanction rigid segregation in the South, where facilities were seldom, if ever, equal. In 1954 the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) succeeded in overturning Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) when the Supreme Court handed down its Brown v. Board of Education (1954) ruling. The Court declared unanimously that separate facilities are inherently unequal, and decreed that the separate but equal doctrine could no longer be used in public schools. A year later, the Supreme Court demanded that local school boards move with all deliberate speed to implement the decision. Eisenhower, although sympathetic to the needs of the South as it faced a major transition, nonetheless acted quickly to see that the law was upheld. He ordered the desegregation of Washington, D.C., schools to serve as a model for the rest of the country, and sought to end discrimination in other areas as well. He faced a major crisis in Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1957. Just before implementation of a desegregation plan calling for the admission of nine black students to a previously all-white high school, the governor declared that violence threatened, and posted Arkansas National Guardsmen to keep peace by turning the black 111
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students away. When a federal court ordered the troops to leave, the students came to school, only to encounter belligerent taunts. As mobs became hostile, the black students left. Eisenhower responded by placing the National Guardsmen under federal command and calling them back to Little Rock. He was reluctant to do so because federal troops had not been used to protect black rights since the end of Reconstruction, but he knew he had no choice. And so desegregation began with soldiers standing in classrooms to ensure the rule of law. Another milestone in the civil rights movement occurred in 1955 in Montgomery, Alabama. Rosa Parks, a 42-year-old black seamstress who was also secretary of the state chapter of the NAACP, sat down in the front of a bus in a section reserved by law and custom for whites. Ordered to move to the back, she refused. Police came and arrested her for violating the segregation statutes. Black leaders, who had been waiting for just such a case, organized a boycott of the bus system. Martin Luther King Jr., a young minister of the Baptist church where the blacks met, became a spokesman for the protest. There comes a time, he said, when people get tired... of being kicked about by the brutal feet of oppression. King was arrested, as he would be again and again. About a year later, the Supreme Court ruled that bus segregation, like school segregation, was unconstitutional. The boycott ended. The civil rights movement had won an important victory and discovered its most powerful, thoughtful and eloquent leader in Martin Luther King Jr. SAQ 16 Which is correct ? 1. When the blacks came back from the WW II, they... a) obtained civil rights b) were still considered inferior citizens of the USA 2. Harry S Truman... a) supported the movements of the African Americans b) was against any civil and political rights for the blacks 3. The Supreme Court of the United States declared that a) segregation in schools was illegal b) segregation in churches was illegal 4. Dwight Eisenhower... a) faced a serious problem in Little Rock, Arkansas b) ordered the desegregation of Washington DC schools to serve as a model for the rest of the country 5. In 1955 Rosa Parks, a black seamstress a) sat down in the section of a bus reserved for the whites and refused to move to the back b) was assassinated together with Martin Luther King Jr. Compare your answers to those in the Answers to SAQs section at the end of the unit. 112
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African Americans also sought to secure their voting rights. Although the 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution guaranteed the right to vote, many states had found ways whether by a poll tax or a literacy test to circumvent the law. Eisenhower, working with Senate majority leader Lyndon B. Johnson, lent his support to a congressional effort to guarantee the vote. The Civil Rights Act of 1957, the first such measure in 82 years, marked a step forward, as it authorized federal intervention in cases where blacks were denied the chance to vote. The struggle of black Americans for equality reached its peak in the mid-1960s. After their progressive victories in the 1950s, blacks became even more committed to nonviolent direct action. In 1960 black college students sat down at a segregated Woolworths lunch counter in North Carolina and refused to leave. Their sit-in captured media attention and led to similar demonstrations throughout the South. The next year, civil rights workers organized freedom rides, in which blacks and whites boarded buses heading South toward segregated terminals, where confrontations might capture media attention and lead to change. They also organized rallies, the largest of which was the March on Washington in 1963. More than 200,000 people gathered in the nations capital to demonstrate their commitment to equality for all. The high point of a day of songs and speeches came with the address of Martin Luther King Jr., who had emerged as the preeminent spokesman for civil rights. I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood, King proclaimed. Each time he used the refrain I have a dream, the crowd roared. But the rhetoric of the civil rights movement at first failed to bring progress. President Kennedy was initially reluctant to press white Southerners for support of civil rights because he needed their votes on other issues. But events forced his hand. When James Meredith was denied admission to the University of Mississippi in 1962 on account of his race, Kennedy sent federal troops to uphold the law. After protests aimed at the desegregation of Birmingham, Alabama, prompted a violent response by the police, he sent Congress a new civil rights bill mandating the integration of public places. Not even the March on Washington, however, could extricate the measure from a congressional committee, where it was still bottled up when Kennedy was assassinated. President Johnson was more successful. A Southerner from Texas, he became committed to civil rights as he sought national office. In 1963, he told Congress: No memorial oration or eulogy could more eloquently honor President Kennedys memory than the earliest possible passage of the civil rights bill. Using all his authority, he persuaded the Senate to limit debate and secured the passage of the sweeping Civil Rights Act of 1964, which outlawed discrimination in all public accommodations. The next year, he pressed further for what became the Voting Rights Act of 1965. It authorized the federal government to appoint examiners to register voters where local officials made black registration impossible. The year after passage, 400,000 blacks registered in the deep South; by 1968 the number reached 1 million and nationwide the number of 113
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black elected officials increased substantially. Finally, in 1968, the Congress passed legislation banning discrimination in housing. Violence accompanied militant calls for reform. Riots broke out in several big cities in 1966 and 1967. In the spring of 1968, Martin Luther King fell before an assassins bullet. Several months later, Senator Robert Kennedy, a spokesman for the disadvantaged, an opponent of the Vietnam War and the brother of the slain president, met the same fate. To many these two assassinations marked the end of an era of innocence and idealism in both civil rights and the anti-war movements. The backlash against preferential treatment for minorities became even more public in a Supreme Court case in 1978. Allan Bakke, a white man, claimed that a quota reserving places for minority applicants was responsible for the rejection of his application to medical school in California. The court ordered his admission, arguing that quotas could no longer be imposed, but then upheld the consideration of race as one of the relevant factors in selection procedures. Nevertheless, the controversy over busing and affirmative action sometimes obscured the steady march of many African Americans into the ranks of the middle class and suburbia throughout these tumultuous years. SAQ 17 Which is correct ? 1. The Civil Rights Act stipulated authorized intervention in cases where a) Blacks were denied the chance to vote b) Blacks refused to go school 2. The peak of the struggle of the blacks was reached in a) 1970s b) 1960s 3. Martin Luther King Jr. was the a) leader of the blacks b) a student in Montgomery, Alabama 4. The March on Washington gathered more than 200,000 blacks and whites. Martin Luther King Jr. a) was killed during this meeting b) delivered his famous speech I Have a Dream 5. During President Johnsons Presidency the African Americans got even more civil rights (Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights act of 1965, etc ). But there was violence in America. In 1968 a) Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated b) Rosa Parks was murdered Compare your answers to those in the Answers to SAQs section at the end of the unit.
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5.5.5 The New Left and the Counterculture

The term New Left generally applied to a generation of Americans who came of age in the 1960s and were radicalized by The new social injustices, the civil rights movement, and the war in Vietnam. generation of The New Left was made up largely of college students. The first Americans (mostly major group to embody its principles was Students for a Democratic college students) Society (SDS), which was formed in Michigan in 1962. Its Port was radicalized by Huron Statement attacked social injustice and the values of the sosocial injustices, called Affluent Society. The New Left grew in 1964 with the onset of the Civil Rights the free-speech movement at the University of California at Movement and the Berkeley, which was a protest against restrictions on student war in Vietnam. involvement in political demonstrations on campus. It also won followers by denouncing American involvement in Vietnam and deploring the failure of Lyndon B. Johnsons Great Society programs to eradicate poverty. The New Left was prominent in countless university demonstrations, the best known of which took place at Columbia University in 1968, Harvard University in 1969, and Kent State University in 1970, when the National Guard killed four students after being called out to stop antiwar protests. The New Left was also active in the counterculture of the 1960s. The 1960s counterculture was a reaction against the conservative social mores of the 1950s, the political conservatism The 1960s counterculture was (and the social repression) of the Cold War period, and the US governments extensive military intervention in Vietnam. Opposition a reaction against to the war was exacerbated in the US by the compulsory military the conservative, social mores of the draft. Young people in particular rejected the stable patterns of 1950s, the political middle-class life their parents had created in the decades after conservatism of the World War II. Some plunged into radical political activity; many more Cold War period, embraced new standards of dress and sexual behavior. and the military The visible signs of the counterculture permeated American intervention in society in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Hair grew longer and Vietnam. beards became common. Blue jeans and tee shirts took the place of slacks, jackets and ties. The use of illegal drugs increased in an effort to free the mind from past constraints. Rock and roll grew, proliferated and transformed into many musical variations. The Beatles, the Rolling Stones and other British groups took the country by storm. Hard rock grew popular, and songs with a political or social commentary, such as those by singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, became common. The youth counterculture reached its apogee in August 1969 at Woodstock, a three-day music festival in rural New York State attended by almost half-a-million persons. The festival, mythologized in films and record albums, gave its name to the era The Woodstock Generation.
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SAQ 18 Choose the correct answer: 1. This movement included. a) Young people, college students b) Black people 2. The young people protested against a) The blacks b) Restrictions on student involvement in political demonstrations on campus, the Vietnam War 3. The young people held university demonstration (Columbia, Harvard, etc), they were against compulsory military draft, and they rejected the stable patterns of middle class life their parents had created. Instead their counterculture permeated American society. Some characteristics of this new culture are: a) Long hair and beards; blue jeans and tee shirts; the use of illegal drugs; rock-and-roll, hard rock b) They did not like the Beatles because they were British Compare your answers to those in the Answers to SAQs section at the end of the unit.
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5.5.6 The End of the Cold War

Ronald Reagan (19112004) was the 40th President of the United States (19811989). He went into politics after a career as a film actor. He served as governor of California from 1967 to 1975 and became a leading spokesman for conservatism in the United States. As the nominee of the Republican party, promising to work toward a balanced federal budget, he won a large victory over President James Earl Carter in 1980 and an even larger one over Walter Mondale in 1984. Advocating a balanced budget to combat inflation, he reversed long-standing political trends by successfully pursuing his supply-side economic program of tax and non-defense budget cuts through Congress. Adopting a hard-line stance against the Soviet Union (the ''evil empire') and other Communist countries, Reagan advocated and oversaw the largest peacetime escalation of military spending in American history; in 1983 he proposed the controversial and expensive space-based defense system known as the Strategic Defense Initiative some have argued this stance was responsible for the eventual collapse of Soviet Communism while others attribute it to the inherent weakness of the Soviet state. Beginning in 1985, Reagan began to soften his stance toward the Soviet Union in response to signals of a new openness in foreign relations under Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. The two leaders met four times between 1985 and 1988, when they concluded the Intermediate-Range Nuclear-Force Missile Treaty (INF treaty) which sharply reduced intermediate nuclear forces. From 1989 to 1991 the cold war came to an end with the opening of the Berlin Wall, the collapse of Communist party dictatorship in Eastern Europe, the reunification of Germany, and the disintegration of the Soviet Union. SAQ 19 Choose the correct word in the margin: ''Reagan believed in negotiating with the Sovietsbut ........ (1) from a position of overwhelming strength. Accordingly, his strategy for dealing ........ (2) Moscow was simple: by enormously expanding U.S. military capabilities, he could ........ (3) the Soviets with a fantastically expensive new round of the arms race. The American economy, theoretically, could better shoulder this new financial ........ (4) than could the creaking Soviet system. Desperate to avoid economic ruin, Kremlin leaders would come to the bargaining table and dance to Reagan s ........ (5). (from America is My Country, by Harriett Brown) a) b) c) d) n e) burden with tune threate only
The Cold War: A hard-line stance against the Soviet Union and other communist countries
Summary
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America, a myth in itself, stands for a lot of things, as diverse (and contradictory) as could be. And still, most people take this country for a paragon of virtue and consequently a depository of ideals. A most dynamic economy, able to cope with any kind of crisis, a social and political management able to resolve in a spirit of tolerance any discord that might arise from the collision of races and religions, and, last but not least, a history that has always shown a dedicated allegiance to the values of independence, democracy and fully-fledged sovereignty all this contributed to the American myth, itself a melting pot of history-based trends which come together to form the fundamental principle of American government: a system of checks and balances making compromise in politics a matter of necessity, not choice. The Revolution (with its notable aftermath: the Constitution) is certainly responsible for this image. It did not produce the kind of epoch-breaking rupture with past customs and institutions as the French Revolution, but it did establish several noteworthy innovations: the separation of church and state, which ended the special privileges of the Anglican Church in the South and the Congregationalist Church in New England; a discourse of liberty and equality which would prove highly appealing in Europe; the idea that government should be by consent of the governed (including the right of rebellion against tyranny); the delegation of power through written constitutions; and the notion that colonial peoples of the Americas could become self-governing nations in their own rights.
Key Terms
The Declaration of Independence The American Revolution The World Wars

The Restraining Acts (1774), or Coercive Acts, as they were popularly known in England, included the following: the Boston Port act, which closed the port of Boston until the tea was paid for an action that threatened the very life of the city, for to prevent Boston from having access to the sea meant economic disaster; the Quartering Act, which required the colonies to provide the British troops with housing, not only in public facilities, but in private homes as well; the Administration of Justice Act, which protected royal officials in Massachusetts from being put on trial in colonial courts; the Massachusetts Government Act, which dissolved the local government of Massachusetts. The Parliament followed the enactment of these measures with the passage of the Quebec Act, an unrelated piece of legislation that 118
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extended the boundaries of the province of Quebec and guaranteed the right of the French inhabitants to enjoy religious freedom and their own legal customs. Although not intended as a punitive measure, it was classed by the Americans with the Coercive Acts, and all became known as the Five Intolerable Acts. Thomas Paines Common Sense (1776) made the following points: Governments, even good ones, are at best necessary evils; they are less desirable the farther the government is from the governed. Ignoring the loyalty many Americans still felt for the king, he argued ardently for independence; monarchy was branded an absurd form of government and George III a Royal Brute. It made no sense, in Paines mind, for a small country like Britain, an island, to rule a continent like America. Independence would foster peace and prosperity. An independent America could avoid the senseless progression of European wars and grow rich by trading with all countries, not just the mother country. The Treaty of Paris (1783) contained the following terms: recognizing the colonies as the United States of America [Article 1]; establishing the boundaries between the United States and British North America [Article 2]; granting fishing rights to United States fishermen in the Grand Banks, off the coast of Newfoundland and in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence [Article 3]; recognizing the lawful contracted debts to be paid to creditors on either side [Article 4]; United States Congress will earnestly recommend to state legislatures to recognize the rightful owners of all confiscated lands, and provide for the restitution of all estates, rights, and properties, which have been confiscated belonging to real British subjects [never implemented, Article 5]; United States Congress will prevent future confiscations [Article 6]; prisoners of war on both sides are to be released and all property left by British army in the United States unmolested [Article 7]; Great Britain and the United States will each be given perpetual access to the Mississippi River [Article 8]; territories captured by Americans subsequent to treaty will be returned without compensation [Article 9]; ratification of the treaty will occur within six months from the signing by the contracting parties [Article 10]
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Checks and balances. This fundamental principle makes compromise in politics a matter of necessity, not choice. For example, the House of Representatives controls spending and finance, so the President must have its agreement for his proposals and programs. He cannot declare war, either, without the approval of Congress. In foreign affairs, he is also strongly limited. Any treaty must first be approved by the Senate. If there is no approval, theres no treaty. The rule is: the President proposes, but Congress disposes. What a President wants to do, therefore, is often a different thing from what a President is able to do. Congress, the legislative branch of the federal government, is made up of the Senate and the House of Representatives. There are 100 Senators, two from each state. One third of the Senators are elected every two years for six-year terms of office. The Senators represent all of the people in a state and their interests. The House has 435 members. They are elected every two years for two-year terms. They represent the population of congressional districts into which each state is divided. The number of Representatives from each state is based upon its population. For instance, California, the state with the largest population, has 45 Representatives, while Delaware has only one. There is no limit to the number of terms a Senator or a Representative may serve. Almost all elections in the United States follow the winnertake-all principle: the candidate who wins the largest number of votes in a Congressional district is the winner. The President of the United States is elected every four years to a four-year term of office, with no more than two full terms allowed. As is true with Senators and Representatives, the President is elected directly by the voters (through state electors). In other words, the political party with the most Senators and Representatives does not choose the President. This means that the President can be from one party and the majority of those in the House of Representatives or Senate (or both) from another. The Federal Judiciary is the third branch of government, in addition to the legislative (Congress) and executive (President) branches. Its main instrument is the Supreme Court, which watches over the other two branches. It determines whether or not their laws and acts are in accordance with the Constitution. The Supreme Court consists of a chief justice and eight associate justices. They are nominated by the President but must be approved by the Senate. Once approved, they hold office as Supreme Court Justices for life. A decision of the Supreme Court cannot be appealed to any other court. Neither the President nor the Congress can change their decisions. In addition to the Supreme Court, Congress has established 11 federal courts of appeal and, below them, 91 federal district courts. The Constitution provides for three main branches of government which are separate and distinct from one another. The powers given to each are carefully balanced by the powers of the other two. Each branch serves as a check on the others, so as to keep any branch from gaining too much power or from misusing its 120
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powers. The Constitution also provides for federalism, i.e. State and Local Governments. The individual states all have republican forms of government with a senate and a house. (There is one exception, Nebraska, which has only one legislative body of 49 senators.) All have executive branches headed by state governors and independent court system. Each state also has its own constitution. But all must respect the federal laws and not make laws that interfere with those of the other states (e.g., someone who is divorced under the laws of one state is legally divorced in all). Likewise, cities and local authorities must make their laws and regulations so that they fit their own states constitution. Alexis de Tocquevilles Democracy in America (1835, 1840) is a classic French text on the strengths and weaknesses of the United States in the 1830s. The French writer and political theorist Alexis de Tocqueville, after visiting the United States, wrote what is still considered one of the most trenchant and insightful analyses of American social and political practices. De la dmocratie en Amrique was published in two volumes, the first in 1835 and the second in 1840, and is commonly translated as Democracy in America. The study concentrates mainly on why republican representative democracy succeeded in the United States when it had failed in so many other places. Tocqueville also speculates on the future of democracy in the United States, discussing both possible threats to democracy and possible dangers of democracy, including his belief that democracy has a tendency to degenerate into what he calls mild despotism. The work is often acclaimed for making a number of predictions which were eventually borne out, as Tocqueville correctly anticipated the potential of the debate over the abolition of slavery to tear apart the United States (as it indeed did in the American Civil War). He also predicted the rise of the United States and of the Soviet Union as superpowers. Democracy in America was published in numerous editions in the 19th century. It was immediately popular in both Europe and the United States. By the twentieth century, it had become a classic work of political science, social science, and history. Abraham Lincolns Gettysburg Address (1863): Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that the nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate - we can not consecrate - we can not hallow - this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long 121
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remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us - that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion - that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain - that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom - and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth. This speech, regarded as one of Abraham Lincolns finest works, was delivered at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, on November 19, 1863. Ceremonies were held to dedicate a cemetery for those killed in the battle of July 1-3 between George Gordon Meades Army of the Potomac and Robert E. Lees Army of Northern Virginia. The main speaker was Edward Everett, a renowned orator. When the board in charge of the event extended invitations to various national figures, it was expected that Lincoln would not be present, but he made his attendance a priority. After Everetts twohour oration, Lincoln spoke for only a few minutes. The ten sentences composing the speech received little attention at the time. Everett himself, however, appreciated Lincolns eloquence, writing him, I should be glad if I could flatter myself that I came as near to the central idea of the occasion in two hours as you did in two minutes. Most newspapers also reported positively on the presidents brief remarks. Through the years, the address, considered a model of its kind, has been much studied. It is often pointed out that Lincoln used the word nation five times, never union. He did not use the words slavery, nullification, or states rights, but went back to the Declaration of Independence, and the powerful statement that all men are created equal, and not the Constitution of 1789 with its implied recognition of slavery. At the time, the U.S. was split asunder and hardly a union and that is why restoring the nation - not a collection of sovereign states - was paramount. The New Era. In the 1920s the United Slates became increasingly urban, and everyday life was transformed as the consumer revolution brought the spreading use of automobiles, telephones, radios, and other appliances. The pace of living quickened, and mores became less restrained, while fortunes were rapidly accumulated on the skyrocketing stock market, in real estate speculation, and elsewhere. To some it seemed a golden age. But agriculture was not prosperous, and industry and finance became dangerously overextended. The Great Depression. In 1929 there began the Great Depression, which reached worldwide proportions. In October 1929, when the stock market in the United States dropped rapidly, thousands of investors lost large sums of money and many were wiped out, lost everything. The crash led the United States into the Great Depression. The ensuing period ranked as the longest and worst period of high unemployment and low business activity in 122
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modern times: banks, stores, and factories were closed and left millions of Americans jobless, homeless, and penniless; many people came to depend on the government or charity to provide them with food. The Depression became a worldwide business slump of the 1930s that affected almost all nations. It led to a sharp decrease in world trade as each country tried to protect their own industries and products by raising tariffs on imported goods. Some nations changed their leader and their type of government. In Germany, poor economic conditions led to the rise to power of the dictator Adolf Hitler. The Japanese invaded China, developing industries and mines in Manchuria. Japan claimed this economic growth would relieve the depression. This militarism of the Germans and Japanese eventually led to World War II (1939-1945). In 1931, President Herbert Hoover proposed a moratorium on foreign debts, but this and other measures failed to prevent economic collapse. In the 1932 election Hoover was overwhelmingly defeated by the Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt. The new President immediately instituted his New Deal with vigorous measures. To meet the critical financial emergency he instituted a bank holiday. Congress, called into special session, enacted a succession of laws, some of them to meet the economic crisis with relief measures, others to put into operation long-range social and economic reforms. Some of the most important agencies created were the National Recovery Administration, the Agricultural Adjustment Administration, the Public Works Administration, the Civilian Conservation Corps, and the Tennessee Valley Authority. This program was further broadened in later sessions with other agencies, notably the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Works Progress Administration (later the Work Projects Administration). Laws also created a social security program. The program was dynamic and, in many areas, unprecedented. It created a vast machinery by which the state could promote economic recovery and social welfare. Opponents of these measures argued that they violated individual rights, besides being extravagant and wasteful. Adverse decisions on several of the measures by the U.S. Supreme Court tended to slow the pace of reform and caused Roosevelt to attempt unsuccessfully to revise the court. Although interest centered chiefly on domestic affairs during the 1930s, Roosevelt continued and expanded the policy of friendship toward the Latin American nations which Herbert Hoover had initiated; this full-blown good-neighbor policy proved fruitful for the United States in the long run. Roosevelt was reelected by an overwhelming majority in 1936 and won easily in 1940 even though he was breaking the nothird-term tradition. In brief, Roosevelts new deal reforms gave the government more power and helped ease the depression; the Great Depression ended as nations increased their production of war materials at the start of World War II, which provided jobs and put large amounts of money back into circulation.
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Gallery of Personalities
Benjamin Franklin (17061790) was an American journalist, publisher, author, philanthropist, abolitionist, public servant, scientist, librarian, diplomat, and inventor. One of the leaders of the American Revolution, he was well known also for his many quotations and his experiments with electricity. Franklins inventions include the wood stove, bifocals, a new ship anchor, the medical catheter, the lightning rod, swim fins, and the odometer. The only American of the colonial period to earn a European reputation as a natural philosopher, he is best remembered in the United States as a patriot and diplomat. His accomplishments were numerous, though. Printer and Writer. Benjamin Franklin left school at 10 years of age to help his father, being apprenticed to his half brother James, a printer and publisher of the New England Courant. Franklin secretly contributed to the newspaper. He left his brothers employment and went to Philadelphia to work as a printer. Industry and thrift qualities he was to praise later helped him to better himself. After a sojourn in London (17241726), he returned and in 1729 acquired an interest in the Pennsylvania Gazette. As owner and editor after 1730, he made the periodical popular. His common sense philosophy and his neatly turned phrases won public attention in the Gazette, in the later General Magazine, and especially in his Poor Richards Almanac, which he published from 1732 to 1757. Many sayings of Poor Richard, praising prudence, common sense, and honesty, became standard American proverbs. Franklin also interested himself in selling books, established a circulating library, organized a debating club that developed into the American Philosophical Society, helped to establish (1751) an academy that eventually became the University of Pennsylvania, brought about civic reforms and supported education for everyone, including women and African-Americans. His writings are still widely known today, especially his autobiography (covering only his early years), which is generally considered one of the finest autobiographies in any language and has appeared in innumerable editions. Beginning in 1732, he achieved great success with Poor Richards Almanack, a yearly publication that became the most popular reading material in the colonies after the Bible. Scientist. Franklin had steadily extended his own knowledge by study of foreign languages, philosophy, and science. He repeated the experiments of other scientists and showed his usual practical bent by inventing such diverse things as the Franklin stove, bifocal eyeglasses, the glass harmonica, and an armchair that could be turned into library steps. The phenomenon of electricity interested him deeply, and in 1748 he turned his printing business over to his foreman, intending to devote his life to science. His experiment of 124
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flying a kite in a thunderstorm, which showed that lightning is an electrical discharge (but which he may not have personally performed), and his invention of the lightning rod were among a series of investigations that won him recognition from the leading scientists in England and on the Continent. Statesman. Franklin held local public offices and served long (17531774) as deputy postmaster general of the colonies. As such he reorganized the postal system, making it both efficient and profitable. His status as a public figure grew steadily. A Pennsylvania delegate to the Albany Congress (1754), he proposed there a plan of union for the colonies, which was accepted by the delegates but later rejected by both the provincial assemblies and the British government. He worked for the British cause in the French and Indian War, especially by providing transportation for the ill-fated expedition led by Edward Braddock against Fort Duquesne. Franklin was a leader of the popular party in Pennsylvania against the Penn family, who were the proprietors, and in 1757 he was sent to England to present the case against the Penns. He won for the colony the right to tax the Penn estates but advised moderation in applying the right. Franklin returned to America for two years (17621764) but was in England when the Stamp Act caused a furor. Again he showed prudent moderation; he protested the act but asked the colonists to obey the law, thus losing some popularity in the colonies until he stoutly defended American rights at the time of the debates on repeal of the act. He was made agent for Georgia (1768), New Jersey (1769), and Massachusetts (1770) and seriously considered making his home in England, where his scientific attainments, his brilliant mind, and his social gifts of wit and urbanity had gained him a high place. As trouble between the British government and the colonies grew with the approach of the American Revolution, Franklin returned to America in 1775, soon to become one of the greatest statesmen of the American Revolution and of the newborn nation. He was a delegate to the Continental Congress, was appointed postmaster general, and was part of the delegation sent to persuade the people of Canada to join the patriot cause. He was appointed to the committee that drafted the Declaration of Independence, which he signed. Franklin sailed to France where he did much to gain French recognition of the new republic in 1778. Franklin helped to direct U.S. naval operations and was a successful agent for the United States in Europe the sole one after suspicions and quarrels caused Congress to cancel the powers of the other American commissioners. Chosen as one of the American diplomats to negotiate peace with Great Britain, he laid the groundwork for the Treaty of Paris. Franklin returned in 1785 to the United States and was made president of the Pennsylvania executive council. The last great service rendered to his country was his part in the Federal Constitutional Convention of 1787, where he helped to direct the compromise that brought the Constitution of the United States into 125
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being. Though not completely satisfied with the finished product, he worked earnestly for its ratification. Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) was born in a log cabin in Hardin (now Larue) County, KY. His father belonged to a faction of the Baptist church that disapproved of slavery, and this affiliation may account for Abrahams later statement that he was naturally anti-slavery and could not remember when he did not so think, and feel. Indiana was a wild region, with many bears and other wild animals still in the woods, and Lincoln recalled life in this unbroken forest as a fight with trees and logs and grubs. There was absolutely nothing to excite ambition for education, Lincoln later recalled; he attended some schools, so called, but for less than a year altogether. Still, somehow, he remembered, I could read, write, and cipher to the Rule of Three; but that was all. In 1834 Lincoln was elected to the lower house for the first of four successive terms (until 1841) as a Whig, his membership in this party being natural, because the partys ambitious program of national economic development was the perfect solution to the problems Lincoln had seen in his rural Indiana past. His first platform (1832) announced that Time and experience verified that the poorest and most thinly populated countries would be greatly benefited by the opening of good roads, and in the clearing of navigable streams. There cannot justly be any objection to having rail roads and canals. Already a lawyer in 1836, in 1837 Lincoln moved to Springfield and married in 1842. He, then, served one term (1847-49) as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, where he opposed the Mexican War, as unnecessary and unconstitutional; he also opposed any expansion that would allow slavery into new areas. Lincoln did not run for Congress again, returning instead to Springfield and the law. He ''was losing interest in politics when the Kansas-Nebraska Act was passed by Congress in 1854, making of slavery a matter of local option (= popular sovereignty); Lincoln viewed the provisions of the act as immoral. Although he was not an abolitionist and thought slavery should be protected by the Constitution in states where it already existed, Lincoln also thought that Americas founders had put slavery on the way to ultimate extinction by preventing its spread to new territories. In 1856 Lincoln joined the newly formed Republican Party, and two years later he campaigned for the Senate. In his speech at Springfield in acceptance of the Republican senatorial nomination (June 16, 1858) he expressed the view that the nation would become either all slave or all free: A house divided against itself cannot stand. In February 1860, Lincoln made his first major political appearance in the Northeast when he addressed a rally in New York. He was now sufficiently well-known to be a presidential 126
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candidate. Indeed, Lincoln won the nomination by being the second choice of the majority, and went on to win the presidential election. By the time of Lincolns inauguration in March 1861, seven states had seceded from the Union. His conciliatory inaugural address had no effect on the South, and, against the advice of a majority of his cabinet, Lincoln decided to send provisions to Fort Sumter in Charleston harbor. The fort was a symbol of federal authority, but on April 12, 1861, South Carolina fired on the fort. The Civil War began and it was now Lincolns assignment to find the best general there was - he found Ulysses S. Grant, to whom he gave overall command in 1864. Thereafter, Lincoln took a less direct role in military planning, but his interest never wavered. Lincoln tried throughout the war to keep the Republican party together and never consistently favored one faction in the party over another. Military appointments, on the other hand, were divided between Republicans and Democrats. The Constitution protected slavery in peace, but in war, Lincoln came to believe, the commander-in-chief could abolish slavery as a military necessity. The preliminary Emancipation Proclamation of September 22, 1862, had this military justification, as did all of Lincolns racial measures, including especially his decision in the final proclamation of January 1, 1863, to accept blacks in the army. By 1864, Democrats and Republicans differed clearly in their platforms on the race issue: Lincolns endorsed the 13th Amendment to the Constitution abolishing slavery, whereas McClellans pledged to return to the South the rights it had had in 1860. Lincolns victory in that election thus changed the racial future of the United States. It also agitated a Southern-sympathizer and Negrophobe, who entered the presidential box at Fords Theatre in Washington and shot Lincoln. George Washington (1732-1799) was born into a Virginia planter family and was educated to become an 18th century Virginia gentleman, with an interest in military arts and western expansion. A lieutenant colonel in 1754, Washington fought the first battles of what grew into the French and Indian War. The next year, he escaped injury although four bullets ripped his coat and two horses were shot from under him. He then resigned his post to marry a wealthy widow with two children, and devoted himself to a busy life, on his lands around Mount Vernon. Washington was elected to the Virginia House of Burgesses and became a revolutionary leader at the outset of the American Revolution. He was one of the Virginia delegates and was elected Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army. On July 3, 1775, at Cambridge, Massachusetts, he took command of his ill-trained troops and realized early that the best strategy was to harass the British. He reported to Congress, we should on all Occasions avoid a general 127
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Action, or put anything to risk, unless compelled by a necessity, into which we ought never to be drawn. Ensuing battles saw him fall back slowly, then strike unexpectedly. Finally in 1781, with the aid of French allies, he forced the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown. He then retired to his fields at Mount Vernon. But Washington soon realized that the Nation under its Articles of Confederation was not functioning well, so he contributed to organizing the Constitutional Convention at Philadelphia in 1787. When the new Constitution was ratified, the Electoral College unanimously elected him President. The two-term Washington Administration (1789-1797) was marked by the establishment of key American institutions that continue to operate. The determination of foreign policy, for example, became a Presidential concern. When the French Revolution led to a major war between France and England, Washington refused to accept entirely the recommendations of either his Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson, who was proFrench, or his Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton, who was pro-British. Rather, he insisted upon a neutral course until the United States could grow stronger. To Washingtons disappointment, two parties were developing by the end of his first term. Wearied of politics, feeling old, he retired to Mount Vernon at the end of his second. In his Farewell Address, he urged his countrymen to go beyond excessive party spirit and geographical distinctions. In foreign affairs, he warned against longterm alliances. Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) was sworn against every form of tyranny over the mind of man. He wished to be remembered for three achievements in his public life. He had served as governor of Virginia, as U.S. minister to France, as secretary of state under George Washington, as vice-president in the administration of John Adams, and as president of the United States from 1801 to 1809. On his tombstone, however, which he designed and for which he wrote the inscription, there is no mention of these offices. Rather, it reads that Thomas Jefferson was author of the Declaration of American Independence, of the Statute of Virginia for religious freedom, and Father of the University of Virginia. Jefferson inherited from his father, a planter and surveyor, some 5,000 acres of land, and from his mother, a Randolph, high social standing. He studied at the College of William and Mary (1760-1762), then read law. In 1772 he married a widow, and took her to live in his partly constructed mountaintop home, Monticello, on land inherited from his father. The mansion, which he designed in every detail, took years to complete. Awkward as he was, Jefferson was no public speaker. In the Virginia House of Burgesses (1769-1775) and the Continental Congress, he contributed his pen rather than his voice to the patriot cause. As the silent member of the Congress, Jefferson, at 33, 128
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drafted the Declaration of Independence, based upon the natural rights theory. He, then, labored to make its words a reality in Virginia, while serving from 1776 to 1779, in the House of Delegates. For example, he wrote a bill establishing religious freedom, enacted in 1786. The bill stated that all men shall be free to profess, and by argument to maintain, their opinions on matters of religion, and that the same shall in no wise diminish, enlarge, or affect their civil capacities. His bill to create a free system of tax-supported elementary education for all except slaves was defeated as were his bills to create a public library and to modernize the curriculum of the College of William and Mary. In June 1779, Jefferson was elected governor of Virginia, but retired in June 1781. Jefferson succeeded Benjamin Franklin as minister to France in 1785, but left Paris in 1789, when Congress confirmed his appointment as secretary of state in the first administration of George Washington. He accepted the position largely because of Washingtons insistence, but immediately expressed his alarm at the elaborate forms and ceremonies that marked the executive office. He went on for a while, but resigned in 1793. At home for the next three years, Jefferson devoted himself to farm and family. He experimented with a new plow and other ingenious inventions, built a nail factory, rebuild Monticello, set out a thousand peach trees and received distinguished guests from abroad. Sharp political conflict had been developing by now, and two separate parties, the Federalists and the Democratic-Republicans, began to form. Jefferson gradually assumed leadership of the Republicans, who sympathized with the revolutionary cause in France. Attacking Federalist policies, he opposed a strong centralized Government and championed the rights of states. When Jefferson assumed the Presidency, in 1800, the crisis in France had passed. He slashed Army and Navy expenditures, cut the budget, eliminated the tax on whiskey, yet reduced the national debt by a third. Further, although the Constitution made no provision for the acquisition of new land, Jefferson suppressed his qualms over constitutionality when he had the opportunity to acquire the Louisiana Territory from Napoleon in 1803. Jeffersons main concern in his second administration was foreign affairs. In the course of the Napoleonic Wars he attempted to avoid a policy of war by the use of economic pressure. Jefferson finally retired to Monticello to focus on such projects as his grand designs for the University of Virginia. He conceived it, planned it, designed it, and supervised both its construction and the hiring of faculty. The university was the last of three contributions by which Jefferson wished to be remembered; they constituted a trilogy of interrelated causes: freedom from Britain, freedom of conscience, and freedom maintained through education.
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SAA No. 4
Describe in your own words the stages of the Revolution, with special emphasis on the War as such. Before describing them, have a close look at the picture below and have another look at the pictures in the ''The American Revolution'' section (5.2).
Please send your answers to your tutor. Your paper should not be longer than three pages. Please note that the quality of your ideas and the coherence of the essay will be 70% of your grade, while the accuracy of your language will count for 30%.
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Answers to SAQs
Should your answers to SAQ 1 not be comparable to those given below, please revise section 5.1.3 of the unit. SAQ 1 (1) Jamestown Settlement; (2) terrible hardships; (3) Americas first permanent English colony; (4) the Mayflower; (5) Plymouth Rock; (6) a social contract; (7) the elder John Winthrop; (8) Massachusetts Bay Company; (9) Plymouth and Salem; (10) the 1760s. Should your answers to SAQs 2 and 3 not be comparable to those given below, please revise section 5.2.1 of the unit. SAQ 2 SAQ 3 1 F; 2 F; 3 T; 4 T; 5 T; 6 F; 7 F; 8 T. 1 T; 2 F; 3 F; 4 F; 5 T; 6 T; 7 F. Should your answers to SAQ 4 not be comparable to those given below, please revise section 5.2.2 of the unit. SAQ 4 (1) f); (2) d); (3) j); (4) a); (5) h); (6) b); (7) i); (8) c); (9) g); (10) e). Should your answers to SAQ 5 not be comparable to those given below, please revise section 5.3.1 of the unit. SAQ 5 1 - a); 2 a); 3 b); 4 a, b, d. Should your answers to SAQ 6 not be comparable to those given below, please revise section 5.3.2 of the unit. SAQ 6 1 F; 2 T; 3 T; 4 F; 5 T. Should your answers to SAQ 7 not be comparable to those given below, please revise section 5.3.3 of the unit. SAQ 7 1 a); 2 b); 3 c); 4) a; 5) b. Should your answers to SAQ 8 not be comparable to those given below, please revise section 5.3.4 of the unit. SAQ 8 1 b); 2 b); 3 a); 4 c); 5 c); 6 b); 7 c); 8 b); 9 a); 10 a). Should your answers to SAQ 9 not be comparable to those given below, please revise section 5.4.1 of the unit. (1) Mississippi; (2) Florida; (3) Alabama; (4) Georgia; (5) Louisiana; (6) Texas; (7) 3,000 Union Soldiers; (8) new national cemetery; (9) Gettysburg Address.
SAQ 9
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Should your answers to SAQ 10 not be comparable to those given below, please revise section 5.4.2 of the unit. SAQ 10 1 F (Lincoln was nominated by the Republican Party); 2 F (Lincoln's guiding principle was to ignore calls for punishing the South); 3 T Should your answers to SAQ 11 not be comparable to those given below, please revise section 5.4.3 of the unit. SAQ 11 (1) h); (2) c); (3) a); (4) g); (5) e); (6) d); (7) f); (8) b); (9) i); (10) j). Should your answers to SAQs 12 and 13 not be comparable to those given below, please revise section 5.5.1 of the unit. SAQ 12 1 F (The United States kept neutral until April 6, 1917 when they entered the war on the side of the Allies.); 2 T; 3 F (The League of Nations was pledged to afford guarantees of territorial integrity and political independence to great and small states alike.); 4 F (The concept of self/determination proved impossible to implement unless the United States made concessions to the Allies.) 1 a); 2 c); 3 a); 4 d); 5 b); 6 c); 7 a). Should your answers to SAQ 14 not be comparable to those given below, please revise section 5.5.2 of the unit. SAQ 14 1 T; 2 F; 3 T; 4 F; 5 T; 6 T. Should your answers to SAQ 15 not be comparable to those given below, please revise section 5.5.3 of the unit. SAQ 15 1 d); 2 c); 3 b); 4 c); 5 d). Should your answers to SAQs 16 and 17 not be comparable to those given below, please revise section 5.5.4 of the unit. SAQ 16 SAQ 17 1 b); 2 a); 3 a); 4 b); 5 a). 1 a); 2 b); 3 a); 4 b); 5 a). Should your answers to SAQ 18 not be comparable to those given below, please revise section 5.5.5 of the unit. SAQ 18 1 a); 2 b); 3 a). Should your answers to SAQ 19 not be comparable to those given below, please revise section 5.5.6 of the unit. SAQ 19 (1) e); (2) b); (3) d); (4) a); (5) c.
SAQ 13
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Further Readings
1. Manfred Ptz, Essays on American Literature and Ideas, Institutul European, Iai, 2. Tzvetan Todorov, Noi si ceilalti, trad. Alex. Vlad, Institutul European, Iai, 1999, pp. 267-288. 3. Gh. Stan, Triunghiul puterii, Panfilius, Iai, 2003, pp. 9-34.
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Appendix
The Declaration of Independence (July 4, 1776) When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Natures God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world. He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good. He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them. He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only. He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures. He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people. 135
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He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within. He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands. He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers. He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries. He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance. He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures. He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power. He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation: For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us: For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States: For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world: For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent: For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury: For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies: For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments: For suspending our own Legislatures and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever. o He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us. He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people. o He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation. 136
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He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands. o He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions. In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people. Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends. We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor. (Signatures follow.) o
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The Constitution of the United States (A Transcription) (Note: The following text is a transcription of the Constitution in its original form.)
We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
Article. I. Section. 1. All legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives. Section. 2. The House of Representatives shall be composed of Members chosen every second Year by the People of the several States, and the Electors in each State shall have the Qualifications requisite for Electors of the most numerous Branch of the State Legislature. No Person shall be a Representative who shall not have attained to the Age of twenty five Years, and been seven Years a Citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an Inhabitant of that State in which he shall be chosen. Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective Numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole Number of free Persons, including those bound to Service for a Term of Years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other Persons. The actual Enumeration shall be made within three Years after the first Meeting of the Congress of the United States, and within every subsequent Term of ten Years, in such Manner as they shall by Law direct. The Number of Representatives shall not exceed one for every thirty Thousand, but each State shall have at Least one Representative; and until such enumeration shall be made, the State of New Hampshire shall be entitled to chuse three, Massachusetts eight, Rhode-Island and Providence Plantations one, Connecticut five, New-York six, New Jersey four, Pennsylvania eight, Delaware one, Maryland six, Virginia ten, North Carolina five, South Carolina five, and Georgia three.
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When vacancies happen in the Representation from any State, the Executive Authority thereof shall issue Writs of Election to fill such Vacancies. The House of Representatives shall chuse their Speaker and other Officers; and shall have the sole Power of Impeachment. Section. 3. The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each State, chosen by the Legislature thereof for six Years; and each Senator shall have one Vote. Immediately after they shall be assembled in Consequence of the first Election, they shall be divided as equally as may be into three Classes. The Seats of the Senators of the first Class shall be vacated at the Expiration of the second Year, of the second Class at the Expiration of the fourth Year, and of the third Class at the Expiration of the sixth Year, so that one third may be chosen every second Year; and if Vacancies happen by Resignation, or otherwise, during the Recess of the Legislature of any State, the Executive thereof may make temporary Appointments until the next Meeting of the Legislature, which shall then fill such Vacancies. No Person shall be a Senator who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty Years, and been nine Years a Citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an Inhabitant of that State for which he shall be chosen. The Vice President of the United States shall be President of the Senate, but shall have no Vote, unless they be equally divided. The Senate shall chuse their other Officers, and also a President pro tempore, in the Absence of the Vice President, or when he shall exercise the Office of President of the United States. The Senate shall have the sole Power to try all Impeachments. When sitting for that Purpose, they shall be on Oath or Affirmation. When the President of the United States is tried, the Chief Justice shall preside: And no Person shall be convicted without the Concurrence of two thirds of the Members present. Judgment in Cases of Impeachment shall not extend further than to removal from Office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any Office of honor, Trust or Profit under the United States: but the Party convicted shall nevertheless be liable and subject to Indictment, Trial, Judgment and Punishment, according to Law. Section. 4. The Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof; but the Congress may at any time by Law make or alter such Regulations, except as to the Places of chusing Senators. The Congress shall assemble at least once in every Year, and such Meeting shall be on the first Monday in December, unless they shall 139
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by Law appoint a different Day. Section. 5. Each House shall be the Judge of the Elections, Returns and Qualifications of its own Members, and a Majority of each shall constitute a Quorum to do Business; but a smaller Number may adjourn from day to day, and may be authorized to compel the Attendance of absent Members, in such Manner, and under such Penalties as each House may provide. Each House may determine the Rules of its Proceedings, punish its Members for disorderly Behaviour, and, with the Concurrence of two thirds, expel a Member. Each House shall keep a Journal of its Proceedings, and from time to time publish the same, excepting such Parts as may in their Judgment require Secrecy; and the Yeas and Nays of the Members of either House on any question shall, at the Desire of one fifth of those Present, be entered on the Journal. Neither House, during the Session of Congress, shall, without the Consent of the other, adjourn for more than three days, nor to any other Place than that in which the two Houses shall be sitting. Section. 6. The Senators and Representatives shall receive a Compensation for their Services, to be ascertained by Law, and paid out of the Treasury of the United States. They shall in all Cases, except Treason, Felony and Breach of the Peace, be privileged from Arrest during their Attendance at the Session of their respective Houses, and in going to and returning from the same; and for any Speech or Debate in either House, they shall not be questioned in any other Place. No Senator or Representative shall, during the Time for which he was elected, be appointed to any civil Office under the Authority of the United States, which shall have been created, or the Emoluments whereof shall have been encreased during such time; and no Person holding any Office under the United States, shall be a Member of either House during his Continuance in Office. Section. 7. All Bills for raising Revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives; but the Senate may propose or concur with Amendments as on other Bills. Every Bill which shall have passed the House of Representatives and the Senate, shall, before it become a Law, be presented to the President of the United States: If he approve he shall sign it, but if not he shall return it, with his Objections to that House in which it shall have originated, who shall enter the Objections at large on their Journal, and proceed to reconsider it. If after such Reconsideration two thirds of that House shall agree to pass the Bill, it shall be sent, together with the Objections, to the other House, by which it shall likewise be reconsidered, and if approved by two thirds of that House, it shall become a Law. But in all such Cases the Votes of 140
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both Houses shall be determined by yeas and Nays, and the Names of the Persons voting for and against the Bill shall be entered on the Journal of each House respectively. If any Bill shall not be returned by the President within ten Days (Sundays excepted) after it shall have been presented to him, the Same shall be a Law, in like Manner as if he had signed it, unless the Congress by their Adjournment prevent its Return, in which Case it shall not be a Law. Every Order, Resolution, or Vote to which the Concurrence of the Senate and House of Representatives may be necessary (except on a question of Adjournment) shall be presented to the President of the United States; and before the Same shall take Effect, shall be approved by him, or being disapproved by him, shall be repassed by two thirds of the Senate and House of Representatives, according to the Rules and Limitations prescribed in the Case of a Bill. Section. 8. The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States; To borrow Money on the credit of the United States; To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes; To establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization, and uniform Laws on the subject of Bankruptcies throughout the United States; To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures; To provide for the Punishment of counterfeiting the Securities and current Coin of the United States; To establish Post Offices and post Roads; To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries; To constitute Tribunals inferior to the supreme Court; To define and punish Piracies and Felonies committed on the high Seas, and Offences against the Law of Nations; To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water; To raise and support Armies, but no Appropriation of Money to that Use shall be for a longer Term than two Years; To provide and maintain a Navy; To make Rules for the Government and Regulation of the land and naval Forces; To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions; 141
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To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the Militia, and for governing such Part of them as may be employed in the Service of the United States, reserving to the States respectively, the Appointment of the Officers, and the Authority of training the Militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress; To exercise exclusive Legislation in all Cases whatsoever, over such District (not exceeding ten Miles square) as may, by Cession of particular States, and the Acceptance of Congress, become the Seat of the Government of the United States, and to exercise like Authority over all Places purchased by the Consent of the Legislature of the State in which the Same shall be, for the Erection of Forts, Magazines, Arsenals, dock-Yards, and other needful Buildings;--And To make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers, and all other Powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any Department or Officer thereof. Section. 9. The Migration or Importation of such Persons as any of the States now existing shall think proper to admit, shall not be prohibited by the Congress prior to the Year one thousand eight hundred and eight, but a Tax or duty may be imposed on such Importation, not exceeding ten dollars for each Person. The Privilege of the Writ of Habeas Corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in Cases of Rebellion or Invasion the public Safety may require it. No Bill of Attainder or ex post facto Law shall be passed. No Capitation, or other direct, Tax shall be laid, unless in Proportion to the Census or enumeration herein before directed to be taken. No Tax or Duty shall be laid on Articles exported from any State. No Preference shall be given by any Regulation of Commerce or Revenue to the Ports of one State over those of another; nor shall Vessels bound to, or from, one State, be obliged to enter, clear, or pay Duties in another. No Money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in Consequence of Appropriations made by Law; and a regular Statement and Account of the Receipts and Expenditures of all public Money shall be published from time to time. No Title of Nobility shall be granted by the United States: And no Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under them, shall, without the Consent of the Congress, accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State. Section. 10. No State shall enter into any Treaty, Alliance, or Confederation; grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal; coin Money; emit Bills of Credit; make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in 142
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Payment of Debts; pass any Bill of Attainder, ex post facto Law, or Law impairing the Obligation of Contracts, or grant any Title of Nobility. No State shall, without the Consent of the Congress, lay any Imposts or Duties on Imports or Exports, except what may be absolutely necessary for executing it's inspection Laws: and the net Produce of all Duties and Imposts, laid by any State on Imports or Exports, shall be for the Use of the Treasury of the United States; and all such Laws shall be subject to the Revision and Controul of the Congress. No State shall, without the Consent of Congress, lay any Duty of Tonnage, keep Troops, or Ships of War in time of Peace, enter into any Agreement or Compact with another State, or with a foreign Power, or engage in War, unless actually invaded, or in such imminent Danger as will not admit of delay.
Article. II. Section. 1. The executive Power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America. He shall hold his Office during the Term of four Years, and, together with the Vice President, chosen for the same Term, be elected, as follows: Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number of Electors, equal to the whole Number of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress: but no Senator or Representative, or Person holding an Office of Trust or Profit under the United States, shall be appointed an Elector. The Electors shall meet in their respective States, and vote by Ballot for two Persons, of whom one at least shall not be an Inhabitant of the same State with themselves. And they shall make a List of all the Persons voted for, and of the Number of Votes for each; which List they shall sign and certify, and transmit sealed to the Seat of the Government of the United States, directed to the President of the Senate. The President of the Senate shall, in the Presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the Certificates, and the Votes shall then be counted. The Person having the greatest Number of Votes shall be the President, if such Number be a Majority of the whole Number of Electors appointed; and if there be more than one who have such Majority, and have an equal Number of Votes, then the House of Representatives shall immediately chuse by Ballot one of them for President; and if no Person have a Majority, then from the five highest on the List the said House shall in like Manner chuse the President. But in chusing the President, the Votes shall be taken by States, the Representation from each State having one Vote; A quorum for this purpose shall consist of a Member or Members from two thirds of the States, and a Majority of all the States shall be necessary to a Choice. In every Case, after the Choice of the President, the Person having the greatest Number 143
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of Votes of the Electors shall be the Vice President. But if there should remain two or more who have equal Votes, the Senate shall chuse from them by Ballot the Vice President. The Congress may determine the Time of chusing the Electors, and the Day on which they shall give their Votes; which Day shall be the same throughout the United States. No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any Person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States. In Case of the Removal of the President from Office, or of his Death, Resignation, or Inability to discharge the Powers and Duties of the said Office, the Same shall devolve on the Vice President, and the Congress may by Law provide for the Case of Removal, Death, Resignation or Inability, both of the President and Vice President, declaring what Officer shall then act as President, and such Officer shall act accordingly, until the Disability be removed, or a President shall be elected. The President shall, at stated Times, receive for his Services, a Compensation, which shall neither be increased nor diminished during the Period for which he shall have been elected, and he shall not receive within that Period any other Emolument from the United States, or any of them. Before he enter on the Execution of his Office, he shall take the following Oath or Affirmation:--"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States." Section. 2. The President shall be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the Militia of the several States, when called into the actual Service of the United States; he may require the Opinion, in writing, of the principal Officer in each of the executive Departments, upon any Subject relating to the Duties of their respective Offices, and he shall have Power to grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offences against the United States, except in Cases of Impeachment. He shall have Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, to make Treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur; and he shall nominate, and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, Judges of the supreme Court, and all other Officers of the United States, whose Appointments are not herein otherwise provided for, and which shall be established by Law: but the Congress may by Law vest the Appointment of such inferior Officers, as they think proper, in the President alone, in the Courts of Law, or in the Heads of Departments. 144
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The President shall have Power to fill up all Vacancies that may happen during the Recess of the Senate, by granting Commissions which shall expire at the End of their next Session. Section. 3. He shall from time to time give to the Congress Information of the State of the Union, and recommend to their Consideration such Measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient; he may, on extraordinary Occasions, convene both Houses, or either of them, and in Case of Disagreement between them, with Respect to the Time of Adjournment, he may adjourn them to such Time as he shall think proper; he shall receive Ambassadors and other public Ministers; he shall take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed, and shall Commission all the Officers of the United States. Section. 4. The President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.
Article III. Section. 1. The judicial Power of the United States shall be vested in one supreme Court, and in such inferior Courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish. The Judges, both of the supreme and inferior Courts, shall hold their Offices during good Behaviour, and shall, at stated Times, receive for their Services a Compensation, which shall not be diminished during their Continuance in Office. Section. 2. The judicial Power shall extend to all Cases, in Law and Equity, arising under this Constitution, the Laws of the United States, and Treaties made, or which shall be made, under their Authority;--to all Cases affecting Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls;-to all Cases of admiralty and maritime Jurisdiction;--to Controversies to which the United States shall be a Party;--to Controversies between two or more States;-- between a State and Citizens of another State;--between Citizens of different States;--between Citizens of the same State claiming Lands under Grants of different States, and between a State, or the Citizens thereof, and foreign States, Citizens or Subjects. In all Cases affecting Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, and those in which a State shall be Party, the supreme Court shall have original Jurisdiction. In all the other Cases before mentioned, the supreme Court shall have appellate Jurisdiction, both as to Law and Fact, with such Exceptions, and under such Regulations as the Congress shall make. 145
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The Trial of all Crimes, except in Cases of Impeachment, shall be by Jury; and such Trial shall be held in the State where the said Crimes shall have been committed; but when not committed within any State, the Trial shall be at such Place or Places as the Congress may by Law have directed. Section. 3. Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort. No Person shall be convicted of Treason unless on the Testimony of two Witnesses to the same overt Act, or on Confession in open Court. The Congress shall have Power to declare the Punishment of Treason, but no Attainder of Treason shall work Corruption of Blood, or Forfeiture except during the Life of the Person attainted.
Article. IV. Section. 1. Full Faith and Credit shall be given in each State to the public Acts, Records, and judicial Proceedings of every other State. And the Congress may by general Laws prescribe the Manner in which such Acts, Records and Proceedings shall be proved, and the Effect thereof. Section. 2. The Citizens of each State shall be entitled to all Privileges and Immunities of Citizens in the several States. A Person charged in any State with Treason, Felony, or other Crime, who shall flee from Justice, and be found in another State, shall on Demand of the executive Authority of the State from which he fled, be delivered up, to be removed to the State having Jurisdiction of the Crime. No Person held to Service or Labour in one State, under the Laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in Consequence of any Law or Regulation therein, be discharged from such Service or Labour, but shall be delivered up on Claim of the Party to whom such Service or Labour may be due. Section. 3. New States may be admitted by the Congress into this Union; but no new State shall be formed or erected within the Jurisdiction of any other State; nor any State be formed by the Junction of two or more States, or Parts of States, without the Consent of the Legislatures of the States concerned as well as of the Congress. The Congress shall have Power to dispose of and make all needful Rules and Regulations respecting the Territory or other Property belonging to the United States; and nothing in this Constitution shall be so construed as to Prejudice any Claims of the United States, or of any particular State. 146
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Section. 4. The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government, and shall protect each of them against Invasion; and on Application of the Legislature, or of the Executive (when the Legislature cannot be convened), against domestic Violence.
Article. V. The Congress, whenever two thirds of both Houses shall deem it necessary, shall propose Amendments to this Constitution, or, on the Application of the Legislatures of two thirds of the several States, shall call a Convention for proposing Amendments, which, in either Case, shall be valid to all Intents and Purposes, as Part of this Constitution, when ratified by the Legislatures of three fourths of the several States, or by Conventions in three fourths thereof, as the one or the other Mode of Ratification may be proposed by the Congress; Provided that no Amendment which may be made prior to the Year One thousand eight hundred and eight shall in any Manner affect the first and fourth Clauses in the Ninth Section of the first Article; and that no State, without its Consent, shall be deprived of its equal Suffrage in the Senate. Article. VI. All Debts contracted and Engagements entered into, before the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be as valid against the United States under this Constitution, as under the Confederation. This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding. The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States. Article. VII. The Ratification of the Conventions of nine States, shall be sufficient for the Establishment of this Constitution between the States so ratifying the Same. The Word, "the," being interlined between the seventh and eighth Lines of the first Page, the Word "Thirty" being partly written on an Erazure in the fifteenth Line of the first Page, The Words "is tried" 147
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being interlined between the thirty second and thirty third Lines of the first Page and the Word "the" being interlined between the forty third and forty fourth Lines of the second Page. Attest William Jackson Secretary Done in Convention by the Unanimous Consent of the States present the Seventeenth Day of September in the Year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and Eighty seven and of the Independence of the United States of America the Twelfth In witness whereof We have hereunto subscribed our Names, G. Washington Presidt and deputy from Virginia signed by (54 other signatures follow) Amendments
The Bill of Rights (A Transcription) Amendment I Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
Amendment II A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.
Amendment III No Soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the Owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law.
Amendment IV The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
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Amendment V No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.
Amendment VI In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defence.
Amendment VII In Suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury, shall be otherwise re-examined in any Court of the United States, than according to the rules of the common law.
Amendment VIII Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.
Amendment IX The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.
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Amendment X The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people. Amendments 11-27 AMENDMENT XI Passed by Congress March 4, 1794. Ratified February 7, 1795. Note: Article III, section 2, of the Constitution was modified by amendment 11. The Judicial power of the United States shall not be construed to extend to any suit in law or equity, commenced or prosecuted against one of the United States by Citizens of another State, or by Citizens or Subjects of any Foreign State. AMENDMENT XII Passed by Congress December 9, 1803. Ratified June 15, 1804. Note: A portion of Article II, section 1 of the Constitution was superseded by the 12th amendment. The Electors shall meet in their respective states and vote by ballot for President and Vice-President, one of whom, at least, shall not be an inhabitant of the same state with themselves; they shall name in their ballots the person voted for as President, and in distinct ballots the person voted for as Vice-President, and they shall make distinct lists of all persons voted for as President, and of all persons voted for as Vice-President, and of the number of votes for each, which lists they shall sign and certify, and transmit sealed to the seat of the government of the United States, directed to the President of the Senate; -- the President of the Senate shall, in the presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the certificates and the votes shall then be counted; -- The person having the greatest number of votes for President, shall be the President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of Electors appointed; and if no person have such majority, then from the persons having the highest numbers not exceeding three on the list of those voted for as President, the House of Representatives shall choose immediately, by ballot, the President. But in choosing the President, the votes shall be taken by states, the representation from each state having one vote; a quorum for this purpose shall consist of a member or members from two-thirds of the states, and a majority of all the states shall be necessary to a choice. [And if the House of Representatives shall not choose a President whenever the right of choice shall devolve upon them, before the fourth day of March next 150
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following, then the Vice-President shall act as President, as in case of the death or other constitutional disability of the President. --]* The person having the greatest number of votes as Vice-President, shall be the Vice-President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of Electors appointed, and if no person have a majority, then from the two highest numbers on the list, the Senate shall choose the Vice-President; a quorum for the purpose shall consist of twothirds of the whole number of Senators, and a majority of the whole number shall be necessary to a choice. But no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice-President of the United States. *Superseded by section 3 of the 20th amendment. AMENDMENT XIII Passed by Congress January 31, 1865. Ratified December 6, 1865. Note: A portion of Article IV, section 2, of the Constitution was superseded by the 13th amendment. Section 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction. Section 2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation. AMENDMENT XIV Passed by Congress June 13, 1866. Ratified July 9, 1868. Note: Article I, section 2, of the Constitution was modified by section 2 of the 14th amendment. Section 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws. Section 2. Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for President and Vice-President of the United States, Representatives in Congress, the Executive and Judicial officers of a State, or the members of the Legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such State, being twenty-one years of age,* and 151
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citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion, or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twentyone years of age in such State. Section 3. No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability. Section 4. The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned. But neither the United States nor any State shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave; but all such debts, obligations and claims shall be held illegal and void. Section 5. The Congress shall have the power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article. *Changed by section 1 of the 26th amendment. AMENDMENT XV Passed by Congress February 26, 1869. Ratified February 3, 1870. Section 1. The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude. Section 2. The Congress shall have the power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation. AMENDMENT XVI Passed by Congress July 2, 1909. Ratified February 3, 1913. Note: Article I, section 9, of the Constitution was modified by amendment 16. The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several States, and without regard to any census or enumeration. 152
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AMENDMENT XVII Passed by Congress May 13, 1912. Ratified April 8, 1913. Note: Article I, section 3, of the Constitution was modified by the 17th amendment. The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each State, elected by the people thereof, for six years; and each Senator shall have one vote. The electors in each State shall have the qualifications requisite for electors of the most numerous branch of the State legislatures. When vacancies happen in the representation of any State in the Senate, the executive authority of such State shall issue writs of election to fill such vacancies: Provided, That the legislature of any State may empower the executive thereof to make temporary appointments until the people fill the vacancies by election as the legislature may direct. This amendment shall not be so construed as to affect the election or term of any Senator chosen before it becomes valid as part of the Constitution. AMENDMENT XVIII Passed by Congress December 18, 1917. Ratified January 16, 1919. Repealed by amendment 21. Section 1. After one year from the ratification of this article the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors within, the importation thereof into, or the exportation thereof from the United States and all territory subject to the jurisdiction thereof for beverage purposes is hereby prohibited. Section 2. The Congress and the several States shall have concurrent power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation. Section 3. This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by the legislatures of the several States, as provided in the Constitution, within seven years from the date of the submission hereof to the States by the Congress. AMENDMENT XIX Passed by Congress June 4, 1919. Ratified August 18, 1920. The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.
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Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation. AMENDMENT XX Passed by Congress March 2, 1932. Ratified January 23, 1933. Note: Article I, section 4, of the Constitution was modified by section 2 of this amendment. In addition, a portion of the 12th amendment was superseded by section 3. Section 1. The terms of the President and the Vice President shall end at noon on the 20th day of January, and the terms of Senators and Representatives at noon on the 3d day of January, of the years in which such terms would have ended if this article had not been ratified; and the terms of their successors shall then begin. Section 2. The Congress shall assemble at least once in every year, and such meeting shall begin at noon on the 3d day of January, unless they shall by law appoint a different day. Section 3. If, at the time fixed for the beginning of the term of the President, the President elect shall have died, the Vice President elect shall become President. If a President shall not have been chosen before the time fixed for the beginning of his term, or if the President elect shall have failed to qualify, then the Vice President elect shall act as President until a President shall have qualified; and the Congress may by law provide for the case wherein neither a President elect nor a Vice President shall have qualified, declaring who shall then act as President, or the manner in which one who is to act shall be selected, and such person shall act accordingly until a President or Vice President shall have qualified. Section 4. The Congress may by law provide for the case of the death of any of the persons from whom the House of Representatives may choose a President whenever the right of choice shall have devolved upon them, and for the case of the death of any of the persons from whom the Senate may choose a Vice President whenever the right of choice shall have devolved upon them. Section 5. Sections 1 and 2 shall take effect on the 15th day of October following the ratification of this article. Section 6. This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by the legislatures of three-fourths of the several States within seven years from the date of its submission.
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AMENDMENT XXI Passed by Congress February 20, 1933. Ratified December 5, 1933. Section 1. The eighteenth article of amendment to the Constitution of the United States is hereby repealed. Section 2. The transportation or importation into any State, Territory, or Possession of the United States for delivery or use therein of intoxicating liquors, in violation of the laws thereof, is hereby prohibited. Section 3. This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by conventions in the several States, as provided in the Constitution, within seven years from the date of the submission hereof to the States by the Congress. AMENDMENT XXII Passed by Congress March 21, 1947. Ratified February 27, 1951. Section 1. No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice, and no person who has held the office of President, or acted as President, for more than two years of a term to which some other person was elected President shall be elected to the office of President more than once. But this Article shall not apply to any person holding the office of President when this Article was proposed by Congress, and shall not prevent any person who may be holding the office of President, or acting as President, during the term within which this Article becomes operative from holding the office of President or acting as President during the remainder of such term. Section 2. This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by the legislatures of three-fourths of the several States within seven years from the date of its submission to the States by the Congress. AMENDMENT XXIII Passed by Congress June 16, 1960. Ratified March 29, 1961. Section 1. The District constituting the seat of Government of the United States shall appoint in such manner as Congress may direct: A number of electors of President and Vice President equal to the whole number of Senators and Representatives in Congress to which the District would be entitled if it were a State, but in no event more than the least populous State; they shall be in addition to those appointed by the States, but they shall be considered, for the purposes of the election of President and Vice President, to be 155
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electors appointed by a State; and they shall meet in the District and perform such duties as provided by the twelfth article of amendment. Section 2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation. AMENDMENT XXIV Passed by Congress August 27, 1962. Ratified January 23, 1964. Section 1. The right of citizens of the United States to vote in any primary or other election for President or Vice President, for electors for President or Vice President, or for Senator or Representative in Congress, shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any State by reason of failure to pay poll tax or other tax. Section 2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation. AMENDMENT XXV Passed by Congress July 6, 1965. Ratified February 10, 1967. Note: Article II, section 1, of the Constitution was affected by the 25th amendment. Section 1. In case of the removal of the President from office or of his death or resignation, the Vice President shall become President. Section 2. Whenever there is a vacancy in the office of the Vice President, the President shall nominate a Vice President who shall take office upon confirmation by a majority vote of both Houses of Congress. Section 3. Whenever the President transmits to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives his written declaration that he is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, and until he transmits to them a written declaration to the contrary, such powers and duties shall be discharged by the Vice President as Acting President. Section 4. Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President. Thereafter, when the President transmits to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of 156
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Representatives his written declaration that no inability exists, he shall resume the powers and duties of his office unless the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive department or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit within four days to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office. Thereupon Congress shall decide the issue, assembling within forty-eight hours for that purpose if not in session. If the Congress, within twenty-one days after receipt of the latter written declaration, or, if Congress is not in session, within twenty-one days after Congress is required to assemble, determines by two-thirds vote of both Houses that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall continue to discharge the same as Acting President; otherwise, the President shall resume the powers and duties of his office.
AMENDMENT XXVI Passed by Congress March 23, 1971. Ratified July 1, 1971. Note: Amendment 14, section 2, of the Constitution was modified by section 1 of the 26th amendment. Section 1. The right of citizens of the United States, who are eighteen years of age or older, to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of age. Section 2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation. AMENDMENT XXVII Originally proposed Sept. 25, 1789. Ratified May 7, 1992. No law, varying the compensation for the services of the Senators and Representatives, shall take effect, until an election of representatives shall have intervened.
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Martin Luther Kings I Have a Dream. An African-American clergyman and political leader, Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968) was the most prominent member of the Civil Rights Movement. His writings and public appearances actually shaped this movement in the 1950s and 1960s. He became famous through his promotion of nonviolent methods of opposition to segregation, such as boycotts of segregated city buses, or sit-ins at lunch counters that would not serve black people. His philosophy of nonviolent resistance led to his arrest on numerous occasions. In 1963, the 100th anniversary of Abraham Lincolns Emancipation Proclamation, King organized a march on Washington, D.C. that drew 200,000 people demanding equal rights for minorities; in 1964, he won the Nobel Peace Prize, becoming at the time the youngest recipient ever. King was shot to death while visiting Memphis, Tennessee. Kings famous I Have a Dream speech was delivered on the occasion of the 1963 march to Washington. On August 28, 1963, King addressed the marchers from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves, who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity. But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. So weve come here today to dramatize a shameful condition. In a sense we have come to our nations capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the inalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked "insufficient funds." But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. So we have come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice. We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of Now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and 158
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desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of Gods children. It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Negros legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end but a beginning. Those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges. But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must ever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force. The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. They have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone. And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead. We cannot turn back. There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied?" We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream. I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecutions and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive. Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed. Let us not wallow in the valley of despair. I say to you today, my friends, 159
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that even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow. I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed--we hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal. I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood. I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice. I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today! I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification; one day right down in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers. I have a dream today! I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain and the crooked places will be made straight and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together. This is our hope. This is the faith that I will go back to the South with. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day. This will be the day, this will be the day when all of Gods children will be able to sing with new meaning, "My country tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the Pilgrims pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring!" And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true. And so let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania. Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado. Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California. But not only that. Let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia. Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee. Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi, from every mountainside, let freedom ring! And when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every tenement and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of Gods children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, 160
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Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, Free at last, free at last. Thank God Almighty, we are free at last.
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Bibliography
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. An Outline of American History, United States Information Agency, 1994 xxx An Outline of American Economy, United States Information Agency, 1991 xxx An Outline of American Government, United States Information Agency, 1990 Bailey, Thomas A., David M. Kennedy, The American Pageant: A History of the Republic, D.C. Heath and Company, Lexington, Massachusetts, Toronto, 1987 Berkin, Carol, Leonard Wood, Land of Promise: A History of the United Sates, Scott-Foresman, Co., Illinois, 1983 Boorstin, Daniel J., The Americans: The Colonial Experience, Vintage Books, New York, 1954 Catton, Bruce, Short History of the Civil War, Dell, New York, 1971 Graff, Herny F., ed., The Life History of the United States, Time-Life Books, New York, vols. 1-9, 1963-1964 Heffner, Richard D., A Documentary History of the United Sates, New American Library, New York and London, 1965 Norton, Mary Beth, David M. Katzman, Paul D. Escott, Howard P. Chudacoff, Thomas G. Peterson, William Tuttle, Jr., A People and a Nation: A History of the United States, Houghton Mifflin, Boston, 1982
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Series coordinator: Anca Cehan

2 2.1 2.1.1 2.2 2.2.1 2.3 2.3.1 2.3.2

3 3.1 3.2 3.2.1 3.2.2 3.3

Baseball: players, cheerleaders, field and stadium 3

UNIT 1 CONSUMER SOCIETY

1.1 Consumer Goods

The consumer world implies general prosperity

1.1.2 Fast Food

Fast-food: McDonalds, Burger King, KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken)

1.1.3 Cars and Motorcycles

Motorcycles: Harley Davidson

1.2 Popular Culture

1.2.2 The Pin-Up

1.2.3 The Pulp

Glossary of Terms and Comments

Education and Recreation

UNIT 2 EDUCATION AND RECREATION

Education and Recreation

The system of education is a matter of each individual state.

Education and Recreation

Massachussetts Institute of Technology 23

Education and Recreation

Education and Recreation

2.2 Holidays 2.2.1 Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas

Education and Recreation

Education and Recreation

2.3 Sports 2.3.1 Baseball

Education and Recreation

Education and Recreation

Football is not soccer.

Education and Recreation

Education and Recreation

Education and Recreation

Glossary of Terms and Comments

The Melting Pot

UNIT 3 THE MELTING POT

The Melting Pot

The Melting Pot

Most Americans are Protestants.

The Melting Pot

The Melting Pot

3.1 Settlers and Pioneers

The Melting Pot

A Maryland Family Farm

The Melting Pot

The City upon the Hill: the ideal Puritan community

The Melting Pot

The Melting Pot

3.2 The Native American

The Melting Pot

The Melting Pot

3.2.1 Indian Homes

Indian homes: wigwams, longhouses, tepees, wickiups, adobe apartment buildings

The Melting Pot

The Melting Pot

3.2.2 Indian Food: the Buffalo

The buffalo provided food, clothing and shelter.