American Stories: A History of the United States, Volume 1: To 1877

Front Cover
Title Page
Copyright Page
Detailed Contents
Special Features
Preface
About the Authors
Acknowledgments
1 New World Encounters Preconquest–1608
Diverse Cultures: Cabeza de Vaca’s journey through Native America
1.1 Native Americans Before the Conquest
1.1.1 The Environmental Challenge: Food, Climate, and Culture
1.1.2 Mexico’s Aztec Empire
1.1.3 Eastern Woodland Cultures
1.2 Conditions of Conquest
1.2.1 West Africa: Ancient and Complex Societies
1.2.2 Cultural Negotiations in the Americas
1.2.3 Columbian Exchange: Plants, Animals, and Disease
1.2.4 Past and Present: New World Exploration and the Modern American Diet
1.3 Europe on the Eve of Conquest
1.3.1 Spanish Expansion
1.3.2 Christopher Columbus: Journeys to a “New World”
1.4 Spain in the Americas
1.4.1 The Conquistadores: Faith and Greed
1.4.2 From Plunder to Settlement
1.5 The French Claim Canada
1.6 The English Take Up the Challenge
1.6.1 Birth of English Protestantism
1.6.2 Religion, War, and Nationalism
Conclusion: Campaign To Sell America
Chapter 1 Timeline
Chapter Review: New World Encounters: Preconquest–1608
2 England’s New World Experiments 1607–1732
Profit and Piety: Competing Visions for English Settlement
2.1 Hard Decisions: Moving to America
2.1.1 The Chesapeake: Dreams of Wealth
2.1.2 Threat of Anarchy
2.1.3 Tobacco Saves Virginia
2.1.4 Time of Reckoning
2.1.5 Maryland: A Catholic Refuge
2.1.6 Past and Present: African-American Freedom in Seventeenth-Century Virginia
2.2 Reforming England in America
2.2.1 Pilgrims in Search of a New Home
2.2.2 The Puritan Migration to Massachusetts
2.2.3 “A City on a Hill”
2.2.4 Competing Truths in New England
2.2.5 Mobility and Division
2.3 Diversity in the Middle Colonies
2.3.1 Anglo-Dutch Rivalry on the Hudson
2.3.2 Confusion in New Jersey
2.3.3 Quakers in America
2.3.4 Penn’s “Holy Experiment”
2.4 Planting the Southern Colonies
2.4.1 Founding the Carolinas
2.4.2 Founding of Georgia
Conclusion: Living with Diversity
Chapter 2 Timeline
Chapter Review: England’s New World Experiments 1607–1732
3 Putting Down Roots: Opportunity and Oppression in Colonial Society 1619–1692
Families in an Atlantic Empire
3.1 Social Stability: New England Colonies of the Seventeenth Century
3.1.1 Immigrant Families and New Social Order
3.1.2 Puritan Women in New England
3.1.3 Establishing a New Social Order
3.2 The Challenge of the Chesapeake Environment
3.2.1 Families at Risk
3.2.2 The Structure of Planter Society
3.3 Race and Freedom in British America
3.3.1 Roots of Slavery
3.3.2 Constructing African American Identities
3.4 Commercial Blueprint for an Empire
3.4.1 Regulating Colonial Trade
3.5 Colonial Political Revolts
3.5.1 Civil War in Virginia: Bacon’s Rebellion
3.5.2 The Glorious Revolution in the Bay Colony
3.5.3 Contagion of Witchcraft
3.5.4 Past and Present: The Salem Witch Trials and the Appeal of Conspiracy Theories
Conclusion: Foundations of an Atlantic Empire
Chapter 3 Timeline
Chapter Review: Putting Down Roots: Opportunity and
Oppression in Colonial Society 1619–1692
4 Experience of Empire: Eighteenth-Century America 1680–1763
Constructing an Anglo-American Identity: The Journal of William Byrd II
4.1 Tensions in the Backcountry
4.1.1 Scots-Irish Flee English Oppression
4.1.2 Germans Search for a Better Life
4.1.3 Native Americans Stake Out a Middle Ground
4.1.4 Conquering New Spain’s Northern Frontier
4.1.5 Peoples of the Spanish Borderlands
4.2 The Impact of European Ideas on American Culture
4.2.1 American Enlightenment
4.2.2 Benjamin Franklin
4.2.3 Economic Transformation
4.2.4 Past and Present: Global Commerce in the Eighteenth Century
4.2.5 Birth of a Consumer Society
4.3 Religious Revivals in Provincial Societies
4.3.1 The Great Awakening
4.3.2 Evangelical Religion
4.4 Clash of Political Cultures
4.4.1 Governing the Colonies: The American Perspective
4.4.2 Colonial Assemblies
4.5 Century of Imperial War
4.5.1 The French Threat
4.5.2 King George’s War and Its Aftermath
4.5.3 Seven Years’ War: The First World War
4.5.4 Perceptions of War
Conclusion: Rule Britannia?
Chapter 4 Timline
Chapter Review: Experience of Empire: Eighteenth-Century
America 1680–1763
5 The American Revolution: From Elite Protest to Popular Revolt 1763–1783
Moment of Decision: Commitment and Sacrifice
5.1 Structure of Colonial Society
5.1.1 Breakdown of Political Trust
5.1.2 No Taxation Without Representation: The American Perspective
5.1.3 Justifying Resistance
5.2 Eroding the Bonds of Empire
5.2.1 Native Americans Challenge the Empire
5.2.2 Paying Off the National Debt
5.2.3 Parliament Sparks Popular Resistance
5.2.4 Fueling the Crisis
5.2.5 Soldiers Enforce British Policy
5.2.6 The Final Provocation: The Boston Tea Party
5.3 Armed Defense of American Communities
5.3.1 Protest Turns Violent
5.3.2 Waging War Before Independence
5.4 Fighting for Independence
5.4.1 Perils of Waging a Distant Colonial War
5.4.2 Building a Professional Army
5.4.3 “Times That Try Men’s Souls”
5.4.4 The Victory That Changed the War
5.4.5 The French Alliance
5.4.6 Past and Present: The American Revolution and Native American Sovereignty
5.4.7 The Final Campaign
5.4.8 The Loyalist Dilemma
Conclusion: Preserving Independence
Chapter 5 Timeline
Chapter Review: The American Revolution: From Elite Protest to
Popular Revolt 1763–1783
6 The Republican Experiment 1783–1789
A New Political Morality
6.1 Defining the New Republican Culture
6.1.1 Social and Political Reform
6.1.2 African Americans in the New Republic
6.1.3 The Challenge of Women’s Rights
6.1.4 The States: Experiments in Republicanism
6.2 Stumbling Toward a New National Government
6.2.1 Articles of Confederation
6.2.2 Western Land: Key to the First Constitution
6.2.3 Northwest Ordinance: The Confederation’s Major Achievement
6.3 “Have We Fought for This?”
6.3.1 Arguments for a Strong Central Government
6.3.2 Armed Resistance and Constitutional Reform
6.3.3 The Philadelphia Convention
6.3.4 Inventing a Federal Republic
6.3.5 Compromise Saves the Convention
6.3.6 The Last Details
6.3.7 We the People
6.3.8 Past and Present: The Constitution and the Doctrine of Original Intent
6.4 Whose Constitution? Struggle for Ratification
6.4.1 Federalists and Anti-Federalists
6.4.2 Adding the Bill of Rights
Conclusion: Success Depends on the People
Chapter 6 Timeline
Chapter Review: The Republican Experiment 1783–1789
7 Democracy and Dissent: The Violence of Party Politics 1788–1800
Force of Public Opinion
7.1 The Challenge of Establishing a New Government
7.1.1 Getting Started
7.1.2 Powerful Rivals: Jefferson vs. Hamilton
7.2 Hamilton’s Plan for National Prosperity and Security
7.2.1 Debt as a Source of National Strength
7.2.2 Interpreting the Constitution: The Bank Controversy
7.2.3 Setback for Hamilton
7.3 Charges of Treason: The Battle over Foreign Affairs
7.3.1 The United States in a World at War
7.3.2 Jay’s Treaty Sparks Domestic Unrest
7.3.3 Pushing the Native Americans Aside
7.3.4 The Haitian Revolution: Racism and Revolution
7.4 Popular Political Culture
7.4.1 Whiskey Rebellion: Charges of Republican Conspiracy
7.4.2 Washington’s Farewell
7.5 The Adams Presidency: Politics of Mistrust
7.5.1 The XYZ Affair and Domestic Politics
7.5.2 Crushing Political Dissent
7.5.3 Declaring Political Opposition a Crime: The Alien and Sedition Acts
7.5.4 Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions
7.5.5 Adams’s Finest Hour
7.5.6 The Peaceful Revolution: The Election of 1800
7.5.7 Past and Present: The Press and Politics in the Early Republic
Conclusion: Danger of Political Extremism
Chapter 7 Timeline
Chapter Review: Democracy and Dissent: The Violence of Party
Politics 1788–1800
8 Republican Ascendancy: The Jeffersonian Vision 1800–1814
Limits of Equality
8.1 Regional Identities in an Expanding Republic
8.1.1 Westward the Course of Empire
8.1.2 Native American Resistance
8.1.3 Commercial Life in the Cities
8.2 Jefferson as President
8.2.1 Political Reforms
8.2.2 The Louisiana Purchase
8.2.3 The Lewis and Clark Expedition
8.3 Race and Dissent Under Jefferson
8.3.1 Attack on the Judges
8.3.2 Past and Present: Tensions Between the
Executive and Judicial Branches
8.3.3 The Slave Trade
8.4 Embarrassments Overseas
8.4.1 Neutral Shipping Gets Caught in the Middle
8.4.2 Embargo Divides the Nation
8.4.3 A New Administration Goes to War
8.4.4 Fumbling Toward Conflict
8.5 The War of 1812: Conflicting Goals
8.5.1 Fighting the British
8.5.2 Hartford Convention: The Demise of the Federalists
Conclusion: The “Second War of Independence”
Chapter 8 Timeline
Chapter Review: Republican Ascendancy: The Jeffersonian
Vision 1800–1814
9 Nation Building and Nationalism 1815–1825
A Revolutionary War Hero Revisits America in 1824
9.1 Expansion and Migration
9.1.1 Extending the Boundaries
9.1.2 Native American Societies Under Pressure
9.2 Transportation and the Market Economy
9.2.1 Roads and Steamboats
9.2.2 Emergence of a Market Economy
9.2.3 Early Industrialism
9.3 The Politics of Nation Building After the War of 1812
9.3.1 The Missouri Compromise
9.3.2 Postwar Nationalism and the Supreme Court
9.3.3 Nationalism in Foreign Policy: The Monroe Doctrine
9.3.4 Past and Present: The Monroe Doctrine, Past and Present
Conclusion: The End of the Era of Good Feeling
Chapter 9 Timeline
Chapter Review: Nation Building and Nationalism 1815–1825
10 The Triumph of White Men’s Democracy 1824–1840
Democratic Space: The New Hotels
10.1 Democracy in Theory and Practice
10.1.1 Democratic Culture
10.1.2 Democratic Political Institutions
10.1.3 Economic Issues
10.2 Jackson and the Politics of Democracy
10.2.1 Jackson Builds Support
10.2.2 The Election of 1828
10.2.3 Indian Removal
10.2.4 The Nullification Crisis
10.3 The Bank War and the Second-Party System
10.3.1 The Bank Veto and the Election of 1832
10.3.2 Killing the Bank
10.3.3 The Emergence of the Whigs
10.3.4 Past and Present: The Two-Party System Then and Now
10.4 Heyday of the Second-Party System
Conclusion: Tocqueville’s Wisdom
Chapter 10 Timeline
Chapter Review: The Triumph of White Men’s Democracy
1824–1840
11 Slaves and Masters 1793–1861
Nat Turner’s Rebellion: A Turning Point in the Slave South
11.1 The World of Southern Blacks
11.1.1 Slaves’ Daily Life and Labor
11.1.2 Slave Families, Kinship, and Community
11.1.3 Resistance and Rebellion
11.1.4 Free People of Color in the Old South
11.1.5 Past and Present: Racial Identity on Trial
11.2 White Society in the Antebellum South
11.2.1 The Planters’ World
11.2.2 Planters, Racism, and Paternalism
11.2.3 Yeoman Farmers
11.2.4 The Proslavery Argument
11.3 Slavery and the Southern Economy
11.3.1 The Internal Slave Trade
11.3.2 The Rise of the Cotton Kingdom
Conclusion: Worlds in Conflict
Chapter 11 Timeline
Chapter Review: Slaves and Masters 1793–1861
12 The Pursuit of Perfection 1800–1861
Redeeming the Middle Class
12.1 The Rise of Evangelicalism
12.1.1 The Second Great Awakening
12.1.2 Past and Present: Evangelical Religion in U.S. Politics
12.1.3 From Revivalism to Reform
12.2 Domesticity and Changes in the American Family
12.2.1 The Cult of Domesticity
12.2.2 Children and the Reform of Education
12.3 Reform Turns Radical
12.3.1 The Black Roots of Radical Abolitionism
12.3.2 The Rise of Interracial Immediatism
12.3.3 From Abolitionism to Women’s Rights
Conclusion: The Limits of Perfectionism
Chapter 12 Timeline
Chapter Review: The Pursuit of Perfection 1800–1861
13 An Age of Expansionism 1830–1861
The Spirit of Young America
13.1 Texas, Manifest Destiny, and the Mexican–American War
13.1.1 The Texas Revolution
13.1.2 The Republic of Texas
13.1.3 The Annexation of Texas
13.1.4 The Doctrine of Manifest Destiny
13.1.5 War with Mexico
13.1.6 Settlement of the Mexican–American War
13.2 Internal Expansionism and the Industrial Revolution
13.2.1 The Triumph of the Railroad
13.2.2 The Industrial Revolution Takes Off
13.2.3 Mass Immigration Begins
13.2.4 The New Working Class
13.2.5 Past and Present: Industrial Working Conditions
Conclusion: The Costs of Expansion
Chapter 13 Timeline
Chapter Review: An Age of Expansionism 1830–1861
14 The Sectional Crisis 1846–1861
Brooks Assaults Sumner in Congress
14.1 The Compromise of 1850
14.1.1 The Problem of Slavery in the Mexican Cession
14.1.2 The Wilmot Proviso Launches the Free-Soil Movement
14.1.3 Forging a Compromise
14.2 Political Upheaval, 1852–1856
14.2.1 The Party System in Crisis
14.2.2 The Kansas-Nebraska Act Raises a Storm
14.2.3 Kansas and the Rise of the Republicans
14.2.4 Past and Present: Anti-Immigrant Movements
14.2.5 Sectional Division in the Election of 1856
14.3 The House Divided, 1857–1860
14.3.1 Cultural and Religious Sectionalism
14.3.2 The Dred Scott Case
14.3.3 Debating the Morality of Slavery
14.3.4 The Election of 1860
14.3.5 Explaining the Crisis
Conclusion: A House Divided
Chapter 14 Timeline
Chapter Review: The Sectional Crisis 1846–1861
15 Secession and the Civil War 1860–1865
The Emergence of Lincoln
15.1 The Storm Gathers
15.1.1 The Deep South Secedes
15.1.2 The Failure of Compromise
15.1.3 And the War Came
15.2 Adjusting to Total War
15.2.1 Mobilizing the Home Fronts
15.2.2 Political Leadership: Northern Success and Southern Failure
15.2.3 Past and Present: Wartime Civil Liberties: Then and Now
15.2.4 Early Campaigns and Battles
15.3 Fight to the Finish
15.3.1 The Coming of Emancipation
15.3.2 African Americans and the War
15.3.3 The Tide Turns
15.3.4 Last Stages of the Conflict
15.4 Effects of the War
Conclusion: An Organizational Revolution
Chapter 15 Timeline
Chapter Review: Secession and the Civil War 1860–1865
16 The Agony of Reconstruction 1865–1877
Robert Smalls and Black Politicians During Reconstruction
16.1 The President Versus Congress
16.1.1 Wartime Reconstruction
16.1.2 Andrew Johnson at the Helm
16.1.3 Congress Takes the Initiative
16.1.4 Past and Present: The Reconstruction Amendments
16.1.5 Congressional Reconstruction Plan Enacted
16.1.6 The Impeachment Crisis
16.2 Reconstructing Southern Society
16.2.1 Reorganizing Land and Labor
16.2.2 Slavery by Another Name?
16.2.3 Republican Rule in the South
16.2.4 Claiming Public and Private Rights
16.3 Retreat from Reconstruction
16.3.1 Final Efforts of Reconstruction
16.3.2 A Reign of Terror Against Blacks
16.4 Reunion and the New South
16.4.1 The Compromise of 1877
16.4.2 “Redeeming” A New South
16.4.3 The Rise of Jim Crow
Conclusion: Henry McNeal Turner and the “Unfinished Revolution”
Chapter 16 Timeline
Chapter Review: The Agony of Reconstruction 1865–1877
Appendix
The Declaration of Independence
The Articles of Confederation
The Constitution of the United States of America
Amendments to the Constitution
Presidential Elections
Glossary
Credits
Index
Back Cover