Four Men Who Created a Country by R. B.

1. Joseph Ellis's main argument in this lecture is that the American Revolution did not establish the nation, the constitution and it's making did so. He argued that the Founding fathers brought a new prosperity of liberty to a founding nation that allowed it to govern and make its own laws in independent states. Joseph Ellis also provides Lincoln's speech as a true American speech that reflects the constitution. Joseph Ellis also provides facts the France helped us win the American revolution, and how we won the war when the British could not afford to continue the war. The war was won when Britain could not afford to continue the war.
2. The main purpose and main point of view that the author is conveying is that the war itself did not prosper and secure American rights and prosperity but the making and writing of the constitution was. Another purpose that the author is trying to convey was that the Americans did not fully win the war by themselves, they were offered much help from the French. Some things that the author is trying to prove is that they were other founding fathers that were not mentioned and helped with a good cause while helping write the constitution. The significant contributions from John Jay is what helped shaped our constitution.
3. Some of our work in class enhanced our understanding to this topic when we asked ourselves what examples does the author give to his conclusion. we learned that James Madison wrote the Bill of rights and was ratified 2 years after signing. We understood what John Jay wrote and explained to Washington about the constitution and what should be on it. We also explained how the Articles of confederation was made and what it stands for, the articles of confederation were written to give colonies some sense of a unified government. A new governing document was needed in order for these new states to act together, under one nation.
4. Some of the historical questions we asked in class was how and why the jay treaty was created and made. Some other questions were how England and America became neutral after the war and the agreement was reached after The Bill of rights. What expectations did America face after the war with its rising economy and how they gained money. The economic problems faced with congress deeply touched the lives of most Americans in the 1780's. The war disrupted the American economy greatly. The British navy destroyed most American ships which crippled the flow of trade to Europe. Both armies regularly stole from farmers even after the war and farmers suffered tremendously.
5. I would like to know why John Jay was not part of the Founding Father? Some other things I would like to know is how Madison and Washington delt with radicals who were against them? How did the government gain money after the war?

Myths of the American Revolution by D. A.

This reading was about the American Revolution and the types of people that were highly affected by the policies and laws forced upon them by the British government. The colonies consisted of many important figures such as Samuel Adams, John Hancock, Thomas Jefferson, many who's rights and liberties were challenged because of Great Britain. The argument was based off of the explanation that Berkin had given about taxes being forced upon by the British government. Owning the colonies was very expensive and so instead of using Britain's treasury, they decided to tax the American colonies and use the money to pay for that land. Many other's like smugglers, tide-water planters, urban workers have been pressured and challenged and therefore pushed onward to join the cause of the American Revolution.

Berkin, while explaining the American Revolution, comes to show that she explains a lot about the wrongs and problems that the British government had caused upon the colonies. She also began to talk about the connection of the people during the American Revolution and how great example it was of the people joining together for a large cause. The British, as the war progressed, marched through the colonies, taking goods, raping women, causing a lot of problems and because of this act, many neutral colonies decided to fight against the British and help the revolution. Britain was far from good and they had challenged the rights of many people in the colonies, forcing them to take up arms against them. Voices that had changed the history of the Revolution was John Hancock, a rich smuggler who was very admired by the people, and Samuel Adams who created the Sons of Liberty, a group of urban workers and smugglers to rise up against the British.

Discussions in class helped us to understand more about the types of people the British were and how far they were willing to go as to treat the colonies very poorly. British believed in a rich, sophisticated economy but they were also very cheap. When it came to the colonies, they saw it as an advantage not only to own more land, but to use the people in it, the resources, metals, and unfair taxation. As the tyranny grew, many men rose for example, John Hancock and Samuel Adams who decided to do something about it. Without the leaders of the sons of liberty and those who wanted to fight against this tyranny, the British would have had their way.

Questions that were asked in class were very informative and descriptive. During the revolution, there were many slaves that did play a crucial part. A question that popped up was what part did the slaves play and how much. During the revolution, as the British marched through the colonies, they soon decided to create a policy that allowed freedom to any slave that took up arms against their own masters. Now considering that there were many slaves, African and Indian, a lot of them went through with the policy and sided with the British to gain their freedom. This caused alot of complications and struggles between the slaves and their masters and it soon became an advantage with the British for as long as it lasted.

Many questions did stay in mind for example, as John Hancock became known, as he became the man he was, he was arrested many times but never found guilty, it leaves you to question what made him innocent every time even though he was a great smuggler. Another question was towards the myth about why the colonies really change how they felt towards the British. It was said to be that the ways of the Imperial system grew old for the colonies but what more caused the separation of the colonies and the British, regardless of the unfair taxes and treatment. There were more reasons as to why the colonies took it personal and how it all became a revolution.

Founding Mothers by C. M.

John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, and so on. All founding fathers that have had an influence during the Revolution. But what you will most likely never see in a history book is how women played a role into the revolution as well.  Rosemarie Zagarri, a history teacher at the George Mason University, discusses how the war had an affect on both women and slaves and why they should be recognized as important figures in the Revolution. She went on to provide three significant women had their own contributions; Esther Derberdt Reed, Phyllis Wheatley, and Elizabeth Alexanader Stevens.

Zagarri explains how Esther Derberdt Reed and other women contributed by not purchasing English goods in hopes that Britain would repeal the taxes. Secondly, these women also went door to door and raised money for the Continental Army and made socks for them as a personal donation. Phyllis Wheatley was born in Africa and captured as a child and sold into slavery. Despite it being forbidden, her owners taught her to read and write and even taught her Latin which was considered to be something that gentlemen knew. She was encouraged to do poetry and her writings brought her fame in England and in the colonies. Figures such as George Washington even enjoyed her work. The last woman Zagarri mentioned was Elizabeth Alexander Stevens. Stevens was a widow living in New Jersey. Once her husband had passed, she now owned the land and the rules were that only landowners could vote and she became one of the first females to vote in New Jersey.

In class we discussed further in depth as to why these people and events were important. For instance, women were the source of economic influence because they were the primary consumers. the economic boycott was to apply pressure to have Britain repeal. There were also discussions about how the men would leave for war and the women had to take over care of the slaves and the land and even businesses. The new roles were sometimes successful because women would learn new things that they couldn't have before and the down side was that not all were successful. Other downsides included food shortages, dislocation, and even the threat of violence. Even with all the down sides, the result was the same. The Continental Army beat the British in the Revolution and a lot of that had to do with the support of women.

Even with all the examples and praise from men at in the era the questions that still remains are why were women not recognized as citizens? Why were these rights exclusively only for certain men even after womens influence during the Revolution?

Being British American by M. M.

The lecture of Dr. Joanne Freeman is about the differences between the British and British Americans during the colonial period. Dr. Freeman uses examples from Sir John Hamilton's diary, as well as other documents from the Virginia Historical Society, to describe not just the characteristics of British Americans, but Americans with various backgrounds. Through these documents, she describes how Americans talked, behaved, and thought, before comparing them to the British. She concludes that due to the environment that colonists were put in and the flexibility that the lack of rules provided them, they gradually changed their view of themselves from lower class British citizens, to equals of the British in England.

If I were asked to identify the purpose of this lecture, I would say that it would be to give the listener an understanding of what kind of mindset the colonists had prior to the American Revolution.One theme that was shared among the sources and documents that Dr. Freeman read from, was that the events described were from a man's point of view. A woman's point of view of these events is absent from the lecture despite Dr. Freeman being a woman herself. This leads me to believe that Dr. Freeman wished to have an outsider's point of view of the events that she described in third person.

During my class's discussion of Dr. Freeman's lecture, there was at least one question about everything that she brought up, but one subject that came up repeatedly was the absence a woman's point of view from the colonial period. When you think about it, how women were affected by the environment, how ideas of independence affected them, and what they thought themselves and the British, is still a mystery. We still don't know if their opinions were the same or different from the men's, if we knew, then we could have a clearer picture of what kind of lives the colonists lived.

Some of these questions were answered thanks to my classmates, who were able to look at the lecture from angles that I didn't. We concluded that the lack of activity from women in the stories we were told were linked to their lack of land. Land was one of the most important things to have if you were in America and it's also what allowed people to vote. Due to how much land was already taken by men, and how much their actions were restricted by not having land, there was little point in women doing anything other than finding land or marrying into a family with a lot of land. 

Founding Mothers by M. M.

George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and John Adams are just a few of the names of America’s Founding Fathers. Everyone knows who they were and how they contributed to the becoming of this nation. These men as many others are known as America’s Founding Fathers. The phrase “Founding Fathers” carries a lot of weight behind it, perhaps because we now know what those men endured, what they did to make this nation what it is now, and how they earned that title. However, they were not the only ones who endured hardships and were also not the only ones who did something towards the contribution of the making of this nation. There were other people who also deserve the right to be called Founding Fathers, or better yet, Founding Mothers. In order to be able to better understand the idea of America having Founding Mothers let us analyze a very interesting lecture from a well renowned historian Dr. Rosemarie Zagarri, Dr. Zagarri was a history professor at George Mason University, the Thomas Jefferson Chair of American Studies at the University of Amsterdam, and the president of the Society for Historians of the Early American Republic. Dr. Zagarri argues in her video lecture that women had as much to do in the founding era as men did, therefore they too deserve the right to be considered founders as well. The video/lecture starts us off by providing a brief summary of the events subsequent to the Stamp Act, the Resolutions of the Stamp Act Congress, and the New York Merchants non-importation Agreement. Dr. Zagarri then, as evidence of her argument, proceeds to relate the stories of four different women and how they all played a special different role in the social and political advancements of that era.

The purpose of Dr. Zagarri’s lecture was to inform everyone of a lesser known part of American history. Through her lecture the audience was able to not only hear the voices of these women as the video went on but also understand their motives, ideas, and ambitions for a not so distant future. Despite the well told stories of these “Founding Mothers” one could argue that there could have been more examples of similar women who gave their blood, sweat, and tears; women like Martha Washington who was America’s first First Lady, Mercy Otis Warren who fought with her pen rather than with sable or musket, and Deborah Sampson whose fervor for the fight drove her to the front lines with her brothers in arms. Nevertheless, despite all the voices that could have been presented on this video that were not, no one can argue that Dr. Zagarri’s Founding Mothers choices were enough to cultivate a desire to learn more about this obscure topic.

While attempting to dissect and analyze Dr. Zagarri’s video/lecture the history 111 class touched some very interesting facts worth mentioning. First we discussed the Stamp Act and how it affected the colonies. What we were able to learn from this discussion was that the Stamp Act consisted of nothing more than Great Britain’s attempt to raise money rather than to balance commerce. The way they intended to raise this money was by requiring that every piece of printed paper be stamped, this was to include anything from playing cards to marriage certificates, wills, and any political document.  The main reason why parliament imposed the stamp act was to help pay for the cost of having troops in the New World.

Second, we talked about the colonies’ fight against taxation without representation through the resolutions of the Stamp Act Congress and the New York Merchants Non-importation Agreement. The colonials did not like the way Great Britain went about imposing this act because they were not included in its negotiation nor implementation. Therefore, they gathered in October 19, 1765 to address the King of England through writing, it was there that they wrote what is known as the Resolutions of the Stamp Act Congress. In this resolution the colonists intended to express their discontent with the way they, as subjects of His Majesty whom have always shown allegiance to the Crown, were being treated. Throughout the entire content of the resolution the colonists remained tactful, humble, and respectful and at no point did they show any signs of anger. However, this was not the only way the colonials expressed their discontent since just 12 days later they passed the New York Merchants Non-importation Agreement. What this agreement consisted of was the boycott of the importation of all British goods and stop the exportation of some American goods; it started as only New York but soon Boston and Philadelphia joined in. Furthermore, there is one more key fact which must be explicitly highlighted. Throughout the entire content of the Resolution of the Stamp Act Congress and the New York Merchants Non-importation Agreement the colonists showed nothing but humbleness, respect, and tact. This was crucial since it showed the English Parliament that the colonists were not unjustifiably angry and out of control, that they were calmed, and all their moves were meticulously and collectively produced.

The third point we pondered upon was the ingenuity from the colonial political leaders as they outsourced by bringing in the women into the fight. This was something which had never been done before, it was so revolutionary and unheard of that Dr. Zagarri calls it: “a secret weapon”. The colonial political powers knew that in order to fully affect Great Britain in any way they would have to get all the colonial citizens involved, specially the primary consumers. That's what they did, they recruited the colonial women to take part in the economic boycott against British goods. One would think that the American women would have an issue with being told not to buy “their favorite cloth, their favorite ribbons, or hats, or buttons, or china, or tea from Britain” but no, despite the popular belief the American women were as supportive as expected. This is tremendously significant because these women were sacrificing what little independence and power they had; one must remember that these women did not share the same rights as men did, they were treated as second class citizens. Women of that era did not have the right to own property nor vote let alone run for office; it was a common belief that women of the time did not have the intellectual capacity to hold a political position.  

The fourth and final point we touched was the multiple examples of colonial women exercising different patriotic acts. The first woman we talked about was Esther de Berdt Reed. Esther de Berdt was an English woman married American born Joseph Reed who eventually became the secretary to Commander-in-chief George Washington. Esther de Berdt help the colonial leaders and citizens by recruiting more women with the power of the pen. De Berdt published an essay on multiple papers titled Sentiments of An American Woman, in this essay she called to other women to help the troops. Once she had gathered enough support from many different women she then traveled door-to-door asking people for donations. De Berdt and her counterparts raised over $7,000  which helped provide the troops with new shirts and socks which were personalized by each woman by putting their names on it. According to Dr. Zagarri, de Berdt’s actions inspired an uprise in female support for the troops from multiple states to include Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, and New Jersey.

Another great example of female patriotism that we learned of thanks to Dr. Zagarri’s video/lecture was that of Phyllis Wheatley. Wheatley was an African born who was sold into slavery to an American family, the Wheatleys. Wheatley did not have the life of a typical slave, she was not brought to work the fields, she was bought to be a domestic slave. The Wheatleys noticed that she was a fast learner and was very intelligent therefore, they decided to exploit their intellectual capacities by teaching her not only how to read and write but also “the mathematics, they taught her geography, history, and even the classics”. If that wasn’t admirable enough they also taught her how to read the classical language of Latin. During her teenage years she decided to write poetry, her talent was so good that one of her poems was actually published therefore, the Wheatleys decided to look for an American publisher to help her publish her poetry book; sadly no one in this side of the Atlantic was interested. The Wheatleys were not ready to give up so easily so in May of 1773 they decided to send her to England along with their son, it was there that she met the Countess of Huntington who sponsored the publication of her book in England, later on in that same year the book was also published in America. It should be noted that a lot of her poetry discussed patriotism and morality, in fact in 1775 she wrote a poem to George Washington in which she celebrated his excellency as the Commander-in-Chief and the American struggle against Britain. Washington received this poem with allegory and actually met with Wheatley, this comes to show that even a black slave woman during the colonial era can achieve greatness with a little support.

The next woman we talked about was Elizabeth Alexander Stephens who was a wealthy widow who lived and owned land in Essex County. Before we talk about why Stephens was so notable we must first understand that in colonial American women were not allowed to vote except for in New Jersey, that's at least during the period from 1776 to 1807. In an era where the entire colonial America was trying to win the fight against taxation without representation this was a touchy subject. Many unmarried and single women who owned land did not like the fact that they had to pay taxes even though they couldn’t vote and did not have a voice to represent them. The reason why this woman was a notable woman was because she was particularly attentive to the way the law was written. New Jersey’s law stated that all citizens were allowed to vote, this meant freed slaves and women who owned land as well. However, since this idea “violated the notions about men’s and women’s proper roles” this law did not last very long.

In short, these women that we have spoken of and many others deserve the right to be called Founding Mothers. Everyone knows of the direct actions from the Founding Fathers which led to the Revolution; however, not everyone knows the direct, indirect, and influential actions that these women made towards the contribution and the advancement towards independence. There are two points to take away from Dr. Zagarri’s lecture: The main point is that these women despite the second class citizen treatment and the inequality, still found it within them to remain loyal to their men, themselves, and most important to their nation. The second point is that her video/lecture was so captivating that it cultivated a hunger to not just understand but also master this obscure topic unbeknownst to most of the American population. I can attest to this since I was present during the discussion on February 28 where a plethora of questions were asked by my counterparts. No questions were left unanswered, however there was a desire for more knowledge shared amongst us. For example, the desire to have heard more examples from other Founding Mothers and the desire to have dug deeper into the political and social influence the Founding Mothers had on colonial America.