46carmen V Configuracion EEUU

46. La configuración histórica de los Estados Unidos de América: De la independencia a la guerra de secesión.
Novelas de
referencia: The Scarlet Letter, The Red Badge of Courage.
Topic 46.
The historical configuration of the US of
America: From independence to the
Secession War. Reference novels: The
Scarlet Letter, The Red Badge of Courage
Carmen Valls
0 Instituto de Ciencias del Hombre XXI

C/ Rumbau. 1 -3°. 17a .46001 Valencia Tf. 963 51 9522 -963290 849. Fax. 963 94 33 05
http:l/www.cienciasdelhombre21.com E-Mail: ich-tyd@digitalmk.com
46. La configuración histórica de los Estados Unidos de América: De la independencia a la guerra de secesión. Novelas de
1. INTRODUCTION
2. FROM THE FOUNDATIONAL COLONIES TO THE INDEPENDENCE OF
AMERICA
-Causes of the Revolution
-The Revolutionary War
3. CONFIGURATION OF THE FIRST AMERICAN STATES
-The Constitution
-The Presidents: George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James
Madison
4. DEVELOPMENT OF DEMOCRACY IN AMERICA AND WESTWARD
EXPANSION
-Nationalism
-Presidents: James Monroe, Andrew Jackson, Abraham Lincoln
5. THE WAR OF SECESSION (Civil War) AND ITS CONSEQUENCES 1861-
1865
-Causes of the War
-Four years of fighting
6. REFERENCE NOVELS
-The Scarlet Letter
-The Red Badge of Courage
7. CONCLUSION
8. BIBLIOGRAPHY
Instituto de Ciencias del Hombre XXI 1

1. INTRODUCTION
The 18th C. is the era of the Enlightenment. This new trend means an evolution of ideas.
Philosophers such as Voltaire, Montesquieu and Rousseau defended the separation of
powers, the equality of all men, and the representatives chosen by popular election. Locke
elevates the concept of the government as a servant of the governed.
In the political side, Adam Smith elaborates his theories about liberalism in economy. He
writes a work of economic and social theory titled: Inquiry into the Nature and causes of the
Wealth of Nations, commonly known as The Wealth of Nations.
These principles stated by French and English philosophers were influential and
incorporated in the attitudes of the Colonial intellectual life.
2. FROM THE FOUNDATIONAL COLONIES TO THE INDEPENDENCE OF
AMERICA
-Causes of the Revolution
The desires of Americans to be independent from Britain arose out of a long series of
disagreements about money and political control.
Britain had had colonies in North America since 1607 ( Massachusetts, New Jersey, New
York, Rhode Island ....) and kept soldiers to there to defend them from attack by the French
and Spanish, and by Native Americans. In order to raise money the British Parliament tried
to make colonists pay taxes.
From 1651, Britain passed a series of laws called Navigation Acts, which said that the
colonists should trade only with Britain. Taxes imposed in the 18th C increased ill feeling
towards Britain. In 1765 the Stamp Act put a tax on newspapers and official documents.
Opposition to this was strong and the following year Parliament had to remove the tax.

By then, people in both America and Britain were arguing about who had the power to tax
the colonies.
Some colonists, called patriots, began to want independence from Britain. They expressed
their feelings in the slogan “no taxation without representation”.
In 1767 the Townshend Acts put taxes on certain products including tea. The assemblies of
the colonies refused to help collect the money and Parliament responding by closing them
down. All this caused many more people to want independence. The Tea Act gave a British
company the right to sell tea to the colonists and actually lowered the price for legally
imported tea. On 16 Dec 1773, when ships arrived in Boston Harbour carrying the tea, a
group of patriots dressed up as Native Americans went onto the ships and threw the tea into
the water. After the Boston Tea Party, as the event was later called, Britain passed the
Intolerable Acts, laws to increase her control over the colonies.
More Americans began to support revolution.
-The Revolutionary War
The Continental Congress suggested that Britain and America should make an agreement,
but Britain refused and so, on 4 July 1776, members of the Congress signed the Declaration
of Independence. This document, written by Thomas Jefferson, gave the Americans reasons
for wanting to be independent. It included ideas that were rather new, e.g. that ordinary
people had certain rights that governments should respect. Since the British king George III
refused to accept this, America had the right, and duty, to form their own government.
There were victories and defeats on both sides during the 7 years of war.
Lafayette brought French soldiers to fight on the American side. With this help, the
Americans won a victory at Saratoga, New York.
After the American victory in the battle of Saratoga (1777) and Yorktown (1781), Britain
recognized the Independence of the US in 1783. They signed the TREATY OF PARIS

(Versailles) by which the Independence was recognized legally, and it also stated that Britain
retained Canada; Spain received Florida; and France won some West Indian islands: Tobago,
Santa Lucia, and Senegal.
3. CONFIGURATION OF THE FIRST AMERICAN STATES
-The Constitution of the United States of America
In 1787 the American statesmen met in Philadelphia and proclaimed the establishment of a
Presidential Federal Republic. Later on, in the same year, the Convention of 55 delegates
met in Philadelphia State House promulgated the CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED
STATES OF AMERICA. This was the 1st written fundamental law, and it declared:
a) Separation of powers: Legislative, Executive and Judiciary
Legislative consisted of
-House of Representatives (chosen by the principle of proportion, as reached in the
CONNECTICUT COMPROMISE)
-Senate (with equal representation of each state, 2)
Executive, consisted of a single person, The President
Judiciary, a Supreme Court was created (9 members)
b) Strong federal government that had the power to declare war and make peace and to tax
and regulate commerce.
Another issue was how to count the slaves for representation and taxation. It was resolved
that a slave was counted as 3/5ths. of a person.
The Constitution did not come into force until 2 years later, that is in 1789 and 22
Amendments were added to it. The 10 first are commonly known as the Bill of Rights.
-The Presidents

GEORGE WASHINGTON (Federalist, from 1789 to 1797)
He was the 1st President of the US. He made important contributions since all the decisions
he took set precedence. He chose Jefferson as his Secretary of State, Hamilton as Secretary
of the Treasury, and Henry Knox as his Secretary of War. His vice-president was John
Adams. During his period of rule the bases for the American Capitalism were set. His term
was also marked by an important industrial development. He was elected President of the
US twice, but he refused to be President for a 3rd time.
JOHN ADAMS (Federalist, from 1797 to 1801)
John Adams was elected President in 1797. Jefferson became vice-president. This period
was marked by strained relations with France. In this year the conflicts with the Southern
States began. He was not re-elected
THOMAS JEFFERSON (Republican, from 1801 to 1809)
He was an important member of the Continental Congress and wrote most of the Declaration
of Independence.
He became the leader of a group who were to form the Democratic-Republican party. As a
Republican he reacted against the centralism of the Union. He was an advocate of states’
rights and freedom for the farmer.
His main concern was the foreign affairs and especially the territorial expansion. In 1803 he
ordered the purchase of Louisiana, and the Slave Trade officially stopped being legal.
His darkest hour was an embargo he authorised in all American export, due to the fact that
Britain and France had imposed orders and decrees that limited American trade with Europe.
Jefferson inaugurated the period of the “Virginia Dynasty” Presidency.

JAMES MADISON (Republican, from 1809 to 1817)
He is sometimes called “Father of the Constitution” because of his work at the
Constitutional Convention in 1787. During the period he ruled, commercial restrictions to
force France and Britain to respect freedom of the seas were approved. American relations
with both Britain and France degenerated.
He started the War of 1812 against Great Britain, and it was called “Mr Madison War”.
During the war, US soldiers attacked Canada, but without success. The British captured
Washington, DC, and burned the Capitol and the White House. American successes,
however led to Treaty of Ghent ,Belgium (1814) which ended the war.
4. DEVELOPMENT OF DEMOCRACY IN AMERICA AND THE WESTWARD
EXPANSION
-Nationalism
The years after 1815 were marked by a surge of nationalism throughout the country, an
enhancement of national power.
The American government had decided to create new states which entered the Union on an
equal basis with the other states. The 13 original states were soon outnumbered by the new
admissions of the 19th C. Five new states were created by 1816: Kentucky (1792),
Tennessee (1796), Ohio (1803), Louisiana (1812) and Indiana (1816). More admissions
were accepted during the following years.
This expansion was made by a remarkable increase in the American population. This
increase was aided by immigrants who poured into the US during the 19th C , attracted by
the prospect of land, economic prosperity and a high degree of religious and political
freedom.
-Presidents

JAMES MONROE ( Republican,

Republican from 1817 to 1825)
During his ruling the major crisis on the question of the expansion of slavery arose. It was in
1819 when Missouri applied for the Union. The problem was that this territory expanded
both to the North (free states) and to the South (slavery). The question was whether to admit
the territory as a free state or as a slave state. In 1820 with the COMPROMISE OF
MISSOURI , Missouri entered the Union as a divided state: the northern part of the line 36
30’, entered as a free state. The southern part entered as a slave state. The number of states
rose to 23 by then.
Monroe also bought Florida from Spain in 1819.
In a speech in 1823 he stated his Monroe Doctrine, that countries of Europe should not get
involved in the affairs of the countries of North and South America, and, in exchange for
this, the US would not get involved in European affairs. It was summarized in the sentence:
“America for the Americans”
All in all, his time as President was called the ‘Era of Good Feeling’.
ANDREW JACKSON (Democrat

Democrat, from 1829 to 1837)
He won a resounding victory in the elections, which meant the end of the presidents from
Virginia and the coming of popular democracy. The suffrage was expanded. During his term
the following changes took place:
-Political transformation
It was based on a two-party system: Democrats and Republicans.
The Democrats wanted freedom of state, a society more equal, and economic liberalism
The Republicans were more conservative.
-Demographic growth

In 1820 there were 9 million inhabitants, and in 1860 there were 32 million (mainly due to
European immigrants)
-Economic development
Labour was required for factories, and gold fever started (search for gold)
-Territorial expansion
Oregon, Texas, New Mexico and California annexed the Union
With the admission of Nebraska the compromise of Missouri was broken. Nebraska was
divided into 2 territories: Kansas and Nebraska, and they had to sort out the question on
slavery.
ABRAHAM LINCOLN (Republican, from 1861 o 1865)
He was a Republican and anti-slavery politician. He won political support in the Northern
States because of his speeches against slavery, but this made him unpopular in the Southern
States.
The American Civil War started soon after he became President.
5. THE WAR OF SECESSION (CIVIL WAR) AND ITS CONSEQUENCES
-Causes of the War
The American Civil War was fought between the northern and southern states from 1861 to
1865. There were two main causes of the war. The 1st was the issue of slavery: should
Africans who had been brought by force to the US be used as slaves. The 2nd was the issue
of states’ rights: should the US federal government be more powerful that the governments
of individual states?

The North and the South were very different in character. The economy of the South was
based on agriculture, especially cotton. Picking cotton was hard work, and the south
depended on slaves for this. The North was more industrial, with a larger population and
greater wealth. Slavery, and opposition to it had existed since before independence 1776,
but, in the 19th c. the abolitionists, people who wanted to make slavery illegal, gradually
increased in number. The South’s attitude was that each state had the right to make to make
any law it wanted.
Many southerners became secessionists, believing that the southern states should secede the
Union (= become independent from the US).
As Abraham Lincoln was against slavery, the southern states began to leave the Union in
1860. There were then 34 states in the US. 11 of them (South Carolina, Mississippi,
Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Lousiana, Texas, Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, and South
Carolina) left the Union and formed the Confederate States of America, often called the
Confederacy.
Jefferson Davis became its President.
-Four years of fighting
On 12 April 1861, the Confederate Army attacked Fort Sumter, which was in the
Confederate state of South Carolina but still occupied by the Union army. President Lincoln
could not ignore the attack and so the Civil War began.
The Union army tried to take control of the South. After the battle of Gettysburg in 1863, in
a speech known as the Gettysburg Address, President Lincoln said that the North was
fighting the war to keep the Union together so that ...’government of the people, by the
people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth’. In the same year he issued the
Emancipation Proclamation which made slavery illegal.

On 9 April 1865, when the South could not fight any more, General Robert Lee surrendered
to General Grant at Appomattox Court house in Virginia.
A total of 620 000 people had been killed and many more wounded.
John Wilkes Booth, an actor who supported the South, decided to kill President Lincoln. On
14 April 1865 he approached the President in Ford’s Theatre in Washington and shot him.
The killing of President Lincoln showed how bitter many people felt. The South had been
beaten, but its people had not changed their opinions about slavery or about states’ rights.
During the war, the differences between the North and the South had become even greater.
The North had become richer. In the South, cities had been destroyed and the economy
ruined.
6. REFERENCE NOVELS
-The Scarlet Letter
It was written by the US writer Nathaniel Hawthorne in 1850. The story is about Puritans in
17th c. New England. Hester Prynne is found guilty of adultery and is made to wear a scarlet
(= red) letter “A” on her dress. There have been 3 film versions, including one in 1995 with
Demi Moore as Hester.
The main characters are:
-Hester, she is the main character and the adulterous woman who wear the letter “A”
-Pearl, she is Hester’s daughter, fruit of her adultery
-Chillingworth, he is Hester’s husband
-Arthur Dimmesdale, a pastor, Pearl’s father
Nathaniel Hawthorne was born in 1809 in Salem, Mass. One of his ancestors was a judge of
witchcraft trials. Consequently he had a mood of sin and guilt. These are the recurring
themes in his works. His novels are set in New England during the time of the Puritans.

Opposite to the optimistic philosophy of the Transcendentalists, he had a tragic vision of
life. His hero is always a man alienated from society with a hidden sin.
Other works are The House of the Seven Gables (1851). His best-known collections of short
stories are the two volumes of Twice-Told Tales (1837, 1842).
-The Red Badge of Courage
It was written in 1895. It is the story of a young boy, Henry Fleming, who joins the army
when he hears that there is a war in his country. This is the Civil War of the US. His major
concern as a soldier is to cope with fear of death, and to preserve his esteem within the
regiment. At first he is flooded with fear and wants to come back home. He meets two brave
soldiers there: Jim, who is killed in the war, and Wilson.
Later Henry becomes an aggressive soldier. He is encouraged to fight and becomes the flag
bearer. He has constructed his own mental defences against fear. The story has a happy
ending.
Stephen Crane (1871-1900) was a US journalist who wrote poems and realistic novels. His
ancestors were soldiers and this influenced his work. He rebelled against the dogmas of
vices: novel, theatre, baseball, tobacco and alcohol.
This novel, which is a psychological portrayal of fear, is an attempt to achieve with words
what the Impressionists achieved with painting: to capture discrete moments. The theme of
war had hardly been treated before by the American realists; The Civil War fascinated his
generation because it was their own war, and not a war against Europeans.

7. CONCLUSION
The importance of the 1770s and 1870s was the emergence of the United States of America
in a form that we can recognise today.
It's important to develop our students' interest in American literature and history in order to
understand the social characteristics, religious believes and political evolution of this
country, the United States, with such a huge influence in our culture nowadays.
8. BIBLIOGRAPHY
Berryman, J. 1950. Stephen Crane. Methuen, London
Cunliffe, Marcus, 1970. The Literature of the United States. Penguin
Encyclopædia Britannica
Guide to British and American Culture. Oxford, 1999
James, H. 1956. Hawthorne. Ithaca.
Ousby, Ian. The Cambridge Guide to Literature in English.CUP
The Norton Anthology of American Literature
http://eldred.ne.mediaone.net/nh/hawthorne.html


46carmen V Configuracion EEUU

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

46carmen V Configuracion EEUU

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

46. La configuración histórica de los Estados Unidos de América: De la independencia a la guerra de secesión.

The historical configuration of the US of

America: From independence to the

Secession War. Reference novels: The

Scarlet Letter, The Red Badge of Courage

0 Instituto de Ciencias del Hombre XXI

2. FROM THE FOUNDATIONAL COLONIES TO THE INDEPENDENCE OF

-Causes of the Revolution

-The Revolutionary War

3. CONFIGURATION OF THE FIRST AMERICAN STATES

-The Presidents: George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James

4. DEVELOPMENT OF DEMOCRACY IN AMERICA AND WESTWARD

-Presidents: James Monroe, Andrew Jackson, Abraham Lincoln

5. THE WAR OF SECESSION (Civil War) AND ITS CONSEQUENCES 1861-

-Causes of the War

-Four years of fighting

-The Scarlet Letter

-The Red Badge of Courage

Instituto de Ciencias del Hombre XXI 1

Philosophers such as Voltaire, Montesquieu and Rousseau defended the separation of

elevates the concept of the government as a servant of the governed.

Wealth of Nations, commonly known as The Wealth of Nations.

incorporated in the attitudes of the Colonial intellectual life.

2. FROM THE FOUNDATIONAL COLONIES TO THE INDEPENDENCE OF

-Causes of the Revolution

disagreements about money and political control.

to make colonists pay taxes.

2 Instituto de Ciencias del Hombre XXI

their feelings in the slogan “no taxation without representation”.

Intolerable Acts, laws to increase her control over the colonies.

More Americans began to support revolution.

-The Revolutionary War

Americans won a victory at Saratoga, New York.

Instituto de Ciencias del Hombre XXI 3

Santa Lucia, and Senegal.

3. CONFIGURATION OF THE FIRST AMERICAN STATES

-The Constitution of the United States of America

met in Philadelphia State House promulgated the CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED

a) Separation of powers: Legislative, Executive and Judiciary

-House of Representatives (chosen by the principle of proportion, as reached in the

-Senate (with equal representation of each state, 2)

Executive, consisted of a single person, The President

Judiciary, a Supreme Court was created (9 members)

and regulate commerce.

that a slave was counted as 3/5ths. of a person.

4 Instituto de Ciencias del Hombre XXI

GEORGE WASHINGTON (Federalist, from 1789 to 1797)

US twice, but he refused to be President for a 3rd time.

JOHN ADAMS (Federalist, from 1797 to 1801)

States began. He was not re-elected

THOMAS JEFFERSON (Republican, from 1801 to 1809)

rights and freedom for the farmer.

Jefferson inaugurated the period of the “Virginia Dynasty” Presidency.

Instituto de Ciencias del Hombre XXI 5

JAMES MADISON (Republican, from 1809 to 1817)

He is sometimes called “Father of the Constitution” because of his work at the

Constitutional Convention in 1787. During the period he ruled, commercial restrictions to

with both Britain and France degenerated.

4. DEVELOPMENT OF DEMOCRACY IN AMERICA AND THE WESTWARD

enhancement of national power.

were accepted during the following years.

6 Instituto de Ciencias del Hombre XXI

JAMES MONROE ( Republican,