W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. • www.NortonEbooks.com
FOURTH EDITION
GIVE ME LIBERTY!
Eric Foner
AN AMERICAN HISTORY
PRAISE FOR ERIC FONER’S GIVE ME LIBERTY!
“The book is inviting to students . . . well-organized and easy to read . . . I love the way Dr. Foner writes! The textbook comes alive with his scholarship and teaching experience.” —Marianne Leeper, Trinity Valley Community College
“I find that Foner strikes the perfect balance between political, legal, social, and cultural history. . . . [Give Me Liberty!] includes the most current or most relevant scholarship.” —David Anderson, Louisiana Tech University
“Often, history textbooks can seem to be disjointed retellings of facts and concepts that remind one of an encyclopedia. [Foner’s] freedom theme ties the material together well, which isn’t always easy with this kind of broad textbook. I do think it’s effective in tying the social and political together.” —James Karmel, Harford Community College
“Foner’s textbook is superb. It is well informed, elegantly written, and offers a kind of narrative and interpretive coherence that is rare among textbooks.” —Jeffrey Adler, University of Florida
“The theme of freedom is very clearly and adeptly integrated. . . . Give Me Liberty! provides a good model for students on how to investigate and carry through a theme in their own writings.” —Jim Dudlo, Brookhaven College, Dallas Community College District
“Give Me Liberty! offers a nice, comprehensive coverage of American history. I feel that equal weight is given to various topics. ‘Voices of Freedom’ is actually one of the major features of the book that prompted me to adopt the text. I am not aware of any other text on the market that has this superb feature. . . . [A] splendid approach.” —Jonathan A. Noyalas, Lord Fairfax Community College
“I’ve had a number of students in the last year comment on how easy the text is to use with the integrated focus questions and terms.” —Lauren Braun-Strumfels, Raritan Valley Community College
“Give Me Liberty! is visually appealing in many different ways. The manner in which the illustrations, maps, and pedagogical components are incorporated . . . makes the text more accessible and much less intimidating.” —Kent McGaughy, Houston Community College–NW Campus
“I appreciate the book’s terrifically accessible writing as well as its clear statement of themes. It has a wonderfully seamless and authoritative quality to its writing. I plan to continue to offer it to my students for many years to come.” —Beverly Gage, Yale University
G I V E M E
L I B E R T Y ! A N A M E R I C A N H I S T O R Y
Fo u r t h E d i t i o n
�
B W . W . N O R T O N & C O M P A N Y
N E W Y O R K . L O N D O N
E R I C F O N E R
Fo u r t h E d i t i o n
�
G I V E M E
L I B E R T Y ! A N A M E R I C A N H I S T O R Y
W. W. Norton & Company has been independent since its founding in 1923, when William Warder Norton
and Mary D. Herter Norton first published lectures delivered at the People’s Institute, the adult education
division of New York City’s Cooper Union. The firm soon expanded its program beyond the Institute, pub-
lishing books by celebrated academics from America and abroad. By mid-century, the two major pillars
of Norton’s publishing program—trade books and college texts—were firmly established. In the 1950s,
the Norton family transferred control of the company to its employees, and today—with a staff of 400
and a comparable number of trade, college, and professional titles published each year—W. W. Norton &
Company stands as the largest and oldest publishing house owned wholly by its employees.
Copyright © 2014, 2011, 2008, 2005 by Eric Foner
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
Fourth Edition
Editor: Steve Forman
Associate Editor: Justin Cahill
Editorial Assistant: Penelope Lin
Managing Editor, College: Marian Johnson
Managing Editor, College Digital Media: Kim Yi
Copy Editor: Ellen Lohman
Marketing Manager: Sarah England
Media Editors: Steve Hoge, Tacy Quinn
Assistant Editor, Media: Stefani Wallace
Production Manager: Sean Mintus
Art Director: Hope Miller Goodell
Designer: Chin-Yee Lai
Photo Editor: Stephanie Romeo
Photo Research: Donna Ranieri
Composition and Layout: Jouve
Manufacturing: Transcontinental
Since this page cannot accommodate all of the copyright notices, the Credits pages at the end of the book
constitute an extension of the copyright page.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Foner, Eric.
Give me liberty! : An American history / Eric Foner.—Fourth edition.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-393-92026-0 (hardcover)
1. United States—History. 2. United States—Politics and government. 3. Democracy—United States—
History. 4. Liberty—History. I. Title.
E178.F66 2014
973—dc23
ISBN: 978-0-393-92026-0 2013029664
W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 500 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10110
www.wwnorton.com
W. W. Norton & Company Ltd., Castle House, 75/76 Wells Street, London W1T 3QT
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0
E R I C F O N E R is DeWitt Clinton Professor of History at Columbia University, where he earned his B.A. and Ph.D. In his teaching and scholarship, he focuses on the Civil War and Reconstruction, slavery, and nineteenth-century America. Professor Foner’s publications include Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men: The Ideology of the Republican Party before the Civil War; Tom Paine and Revolutionary America; Nothing but Freedom: Emancipation and Its Legacy; Reconstruction: America’s Unfinished Revolution, 1863–1877; The Story of American Freedom; and Forever Free: The Story of Emancipation and Reconstruction. His history of Reconstruction won the Los Angeles Times Book Award for History, the Bancroft Prize, and the Parkman Prize. He has served as president of the Organization of American Historians and the American Historical Association. In 2006 he received the Presidential Award for Outstanding Teaching from Columbia University. His most recent book is The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery, winner of the Bancroft and Lincoln Prizes and the Pulitzer Prize for History.
�
A B O U T T H E A U T H O R
Contents
ix
ABOUT THE AUTHOR ... vii LIST OF MAPS, TABLES, AND FIGURES ... xxxiii DEDICATION ... xxxvii PREFACE ... xxxix ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ... xlv
PA R T 1: A M E R ICA N COL ON I ES T O 17 6 3
1. A N E W W O R L D . . . 4 THE FIRST AMERICANS ... 6
The Settling of the Americas ... 6 ★ Indian Societies of the
Americas ... 8 ★ Mound Builders of the Mississippi River Valley ... 9 ★
Western Indians ... 10 ★ Indians of Eastern North America ... 10 ★ Native
American Religion ... 12 ★ Land and Property ... 12 ★ Gender
Relations ... 14 ★ European Views of the Indians ... 14
INDIAN FREEDOM, EUROPEAN FREEDOM ... 15 Indian Freedom ... 15 ★ Christian Liberty ... 16 ★ Freedom and
Authority ... 17 ★ Liberty and Liberties ... 17
THE EXPANSION OF EUROPE ... 18 Chinese and Portuguese Navigation ... 18 ★ Portugal and West
Africa ... 19 ★ Freedom and Slavery in Africa ... 20 ★ The Voyages of
Columbus ... 20
CONTACT ... 21 Columbus in the New World ... 21 ★ Exploration and Conquest ... 23 ★
The Demographic Disaster ... 24
THE SPANISH EMPIRE ... 24 Governing Spanish America ... 25 ★ Colonists in Spanish
America ... 25 ★ Colonists and Indians ... 26 ★ Justifications for
Conquest ... 27 ★ Spreading the Faith ... 28 ★ Piety and Profit ... 29 ★
Las Casas’s Complaint ... 29 ★ Reforming the Empire ... 30 ★ Exploring
North America ... 31 ★ Spanish Florida ... 33 ★ Spain in the
Southwest ... 33 ★ The Pueblo Revolt ... 34
THE FRENCH AND DUTCH EMPIRES ... 35 French Colonization ... 35
Voices of Freedom: From Bartolomé de las Casas, History of the Indies
(1528), and From “Declaration of Josephe” (December 19, 1681) ... 36
C O N T E N T S
x
Contents
New France and the Indians ... 38 ★ The Dutch Empire ... 41 ★ Dutch
Freedom ... 41 ★ Freedom in New Netherland ... 41 ★ The Dutch and
Religious Toleration ... 42 ★ Settling New Netherland ... 43 ★ New
Netherland and the Indians ... 44
REVIEW ... 47
2 . B E G I N N I N G S O F E N G L I S H A M E R I C A , 16 0 7–16 6 0 . . . 4 8
ENGLAND AND THE NEW WORLD ... 50 Unifying the English Nation ... 50 ★ England and Ireland ... 50 ★ England
and North America ... 51 ★ Spreading Protestantism ... 52 ★ The Social
Crisis ... 52 ★ Masterless Men ... 53
THE COMING OF THE ENGLISH ... 54 English Emigrants ... 54 ★ Indentured Servants ... 55 ★ Land and
Liberty ... 55 ★ Englishmen and Indians ... 56 ★ The Transformation of
Indian Life ... 57 ★ Changes in the Land ... 58
SETTLING THE CHESAPEAKE ... 58 The Jamestown Colony ... 58 ★ From Company to Society ... 59 ★
Powhatan and Pocahontas ... 59 ★ The Uprising of 1622 ... 60 ★
A Tobacco Colony ... 61 ★ Women and the Family ... 62 ★
The Maryland Experiment ... 63 ★ Religion in Maryland ... 64
THE NEW ENGLAND WAY ... 64 The Rise of Puritanism ... 64 ★ Moral Liberty ... 65 ★ The Pilgrims at
Plymouth ... 66 ★ The Great Migration ... 67 ★ The Puritan Family ... 68 ★
Government and Society in Massachusetts ... 68 ★ Church and State in
Puritan Massachusetts ... 70
NEW ENGLANDERS DIVIDED ... 70 Roger Williams ... 71 ★ Rhode Island and Connecticut ... 71 ★ The Trials
of Anne Hutchinson ... 72 ★ Puritans and Indians ... 73
Voices of Freedom: From “The Trial of Anne Hutchinson” (1637),
and From John Winthrop, Speech to the Massachusetts General Court
(July 3, 1645) ... 74
The Pequot War ... 76 ★ The New England Economy ... 77 ★
The Merchant Elite ... 78 ★ The Half-Way Covenant ... 78
RELIGION, POLITICS, AND FREEDOM ... 79 The Rights of Englishmen ... 79 ★ The English Civil War ... 80 ★
England’s Debate over Freedom ... 80 ★ English Liberty ... 81 ★
The Civil War and English America ... 82 ★ The Crisis in Maryland ... 82 ★
Cromwell and the Empire ... 83
REVIEW ... 85
Contents
xi
3 . C R E A T I N G A N G L O - A M E R I C A , 16 6 0 –17 5 0 . . . 8 6 GLOBAL COMPETITION AND THE EXPANSION OF ENGLAND’S EMPIRE ... 88
The Mercantilist System ... 88 ★ The Conquest of New
Netherland ... 88 ★ New York and the Rights of Englishmen and
Englishwomen ... 90 ★ New York and the Indians ... 90 ★ The Charter
of Liberties ... 91 ★ The Founding of Carolina ... 91 ★ The Holy
Experiment ... 92 ★ Quaker Liberty ... 93 ★ Land in Pennsylvania ... 94
ORIGINS OF AMERICAN SLAVERY ... 94 Englishmen and Africans ... 94 ★ Slavery in History ... 95 ★ Slavery in the
West Indies ... 95 ★ Slavery and the Law ... 97 ★ The Rise of Chesapeake
Slavery ... 98 ★ Bacon’s Rebellion: Land and Labor in Virginia ... 99 ★
The End of the Rebellion, and Its Consequences ... 100 ★ A Slave
Society ... 100 ★ Notions of Freedom ... 101
COLONIES IN CRISIS ... 101 The Glorious Revolution ... 102 ★ The Glorious Revolution in
America ... 103 ★ The Maryland Uprising ... 103 ★ Leisler’s
Rebellion ... 104 ★ Changes in New England ... 104 ★ The Prosecution
of Witches ... 105 ★ The Salem Witch Trials ... 105
THE GROWTH OF COLONIAL AMERICA ... 106 A Diverse Population ... 107 ★ Attracting Settlers ... 107 ★ The
German Migration ... 109 ★ Religious Diversity ... 110 ★ Indian Life in
Transition ... 111
Voices of Freedom: From Letter by a Swiss-German Immigrant to
Pennsylvania (August 23, 1769), and From Memorial against
Non-English Immigration (December 1727) ... 112
Regional Diversity ... 114 ★ The Consumer Revolution ... 115 ★ Colonial
Cities ... 115 ★ Colonial Artisans ... 116 ★ An Atlantic World ... 116
SOCIAL CLASSES IN THE COLONIES ... 118 The Colonial Elite ... 118 ★ Anglicization ... 119 ★ The South Carolina
Aristocracy ... 119 ★ Poverty in the Colonies ... 120 ★ The Middle
Ranks ... 121 ★ Women and the Household Economy ... 122 ★ North
America at Mid-Century ... 123
REVIEW ... 125
4 . S L A V E R Y, F R E E D O M , A N D T H E S T R U G G L E F O R E M P I R E T O 17 6 3 . . . 1 2 6
SLAVERY AND EMPIRE ... 128 Atlantic Trade ... 128 ★ Africa and the Slave Trade ... 130 ★ The Middle
Passage ... 130 ★ Chesapeake Slavery ... 132 ★ Freedom and Slavery in
the Chesapeake ... 133 ★ Indian Slavery in Early Carolina ... 133 ★ The
xii
Contents
Rice Kingdom ... 134 ★ The Georgia Experiment ... 134 ★ Slavery in
the North ... 135
SLAVE CULTURES AND SLAVE RESISTANCE ... 136 Becoming African-American ... 136 ★ African Religion in Colonial
America ... 136 ★ African-American Cultures ... 137 ★ Resistance to
Slavery ... 138 ★ The Crisis of 1739–1741 ... 139
AN EMPIRE OF FREEDOM ... 140 British Patriotism ... 140 ★ The British Constitution ... 140 ★ The
Language of Liberty ... 141 ★ Republican Liberty ... 141 ★ Liberal
Freedom ... 142
THE PUBLIC SPHERE ... 143 The Right to Vote ... 144 ★ Political Cultures ... 144 ★ Colonial
Government ... 145 ★ The Rise of the Assemblies ... 146 ★ Politics in
Public ... 146 ★ The Colonial Press ... 147 ★ Freedom of Expression
and Its Limits ... 148 ★ The Trial of Zenger ... 148 ★ The American
Enlightenment ... 149
THE GREAT AWAKENING ... 150 Religious Revivals ... 150 ★ The Preaching of Whitefield ... 151 ★
The Awakening’s Impact ... 151
IMPERIAL RIVALRIES ... 152 Spanish North America ... 152 ★ The Spanish in California ... 154 ★
The French Empire ... 155
BATTLE FOR THE CONTINENT ... 156 The Middle Ground ... 156 ★ The Seven Years’ War ... 157 ★ A World
Transformed ... 158 ★ Pontiac’s Rebellion ... 160 ★ The Proclamation Line
... 160 ★ Pennsylvania and the Indians ... 161
Voices of Freedom: From Pontiac, Speeches (1762 and 1763), and From
The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus
Vassa, the African (1789) ... 162
Colonial Identities ... 164
REVIEW ... 166
PA R T 2 : A N E W N AT ION, 17 6 3 –18 4 0
5 . T H E A M E R I C A N R E V O L U T I O N , 17 6 3 –17 8 3 . . . 17 0 THE CRISIS BEGINS ... 171
Consolidating the Empire ... 172 ★ Taxing the Colonies ... 173 ★ The
Stamp Act Crisis ... 173 ★ Taxation and Representation ... 174 ★ Liberty
and Resistance ... 175 ★ Politics in the Streets ... 176 ★ The
Regulators ... 176 ★ The Tenant Uprising ... 178
Contents
xiii
THE ROAD TO REVOLUTION ... 178 The Townshend Crisis ... 178 ★ Homespun Virtue ... 179 ★ The Boston
Massacre ... 179 ★ Wilkes and Liberty ... 181 ★ The Tea Act ... 181 ★
The Intolerable Acts ... 181
THE COMING OF INDEPENDENCE ... 182 The Continental Congress ... 182 ★ The Continental Association ...
183 ★ The Sweets of Liberty ... 183 ★ The Outbreak of War ... 184 ★
Independence? ... 185 ★ Common Sense ... 186 ★ Paine’s Impact ... 187 ★
The Declaration of Independence ... 187
Voices of Freedom: From Thomas Paine, Common Sense (1776), and
From Jonathan Boucher, A View of the Causes and Consequences of
the American Revolution (1775) ... 188
The Declaration and American Freedom ... 190 ★ An Asylum for
Mankind ... 191 ★ The Global Declaration of Independence ... 192
SECURING INDEPENDENCE ... 193 The Balance of Power ... 193 ★ Blacks in the Revolution ... 193 ★
The First Years of the War ... 194 ★ The Battle of Saratoga ... 195 ★
The War in the South ... 197 ★ Victory at Last ... 199
REVIEW ... 203
6 . T H E R E V O L U T I O N W I T H I N . . . 2 0 4 DEMOCRATIZING FREEDOM ... 206
The Dream of Equality ... 206 ★ Expanding the Political Nation ... 206 ★
The Revolution in Pennsylvania ... 207 ★ The New Constitutions ... 208 ★
The Right to Vote ... 209 ★ Democratizing Government ... 209
TOWARD RELIGIOUS TOLERATION ... 210 Catholic Americans ... 211 ★ The Founders and Religion ... 211 ★ Separating
Church and State ... 212 ★ Jefferson and Religious Liberty ... 213 ★
The Revolution and the Churches ... 214 ★ Christian Republicanism ... 215
DEFINING ECONOMIC FREEDOM ... 215 Toward Free Labor ... 215 ★ The Soul of a Republic ... 216 ★ The Politics
of Inflation ... 217 ★ The Debate over Free Trade ... 218
THE LIMITS OF LIBERTY ... 218 Colonial Loyalists ... 218 ★ Loyalists’ Plight ... 219 ★ The Indians’
Revolution ... 221 ★ White Freedom, Indian Freedom ... 222
SLAVERY AND THE REVOLUTION ... 223 The Language of Slavery and Freedom ... 223 ★ Obstacles to
Abolition ... 224 ★ The Cause of General Liberty ... 225 ★ Petitions
for Freedom ... 225 ★ British Emancipators ... 226 ★ Voluntary
Emancipations ... 228 ★ Abolition in the North ... 228 ★ Free Black
Communities ... 229
xiv
Contents
Voices of Freedom: From Abigail Adams to John Adams, Braintree,
Mass. (March 31, 1776), and From Petitions of Slaves to the
Massachusetts Legislature (1773 and 1777) ... 230
DAUGHTERS OF LIBERTY ... 232 Revolutionary Women ... 232 ★ Gender and Politics ... 232 ★ Republican
Motherhood ... 234 ★ The Arduous Struggle for Liberty ... 235
REVIEW ... 237
7. F O U N D I N G A N A T I O N , 17 8 3 –17 9 1 . . . 2 3 8 AMERICA UNDER THE CONFEDERATION ... 240
The Articles of Confederation ... 240 ★ Congress and the
West ... 242 ★ Settlers and the West ... 242 ★ The Land
Ordinances ... 243 ★ The Confederation’s Weaknesses ... 245 ★ Shays’s
Rebellion ... 246 ★ Nationalists of the 1780s ... 246
A NEW CONSTITUTION ... 247 The Structure of Government ... 248 ★ The Limits of Democracy ... 249 ★
The Division and Separation of Powers ... 250 ★ The Debate over Slavery
... 251 ★ Slavery in the Constitution ... 251 ★ The Final
Document ... 253
THE RATIFICATION DEBATE AND THE ORIGIN OF THE BILL OF RIGHTS ... 254
The Federalist ... 254 ★ “Extend the Sphere” ... 255 ★ The
Anti-Federalists ... 256 ★ The Bill of Rights ... 257
Voices of Freedom: From David Ramsay, The History of the American
Revolution (1789), and From James Winthrop, Anti-Federalist Essay
Signed “Agrippa” (1787) ... 260
“WE THE PEOPLE” ... 263 National Identity ... 263 ★ Indians in the New Nation ... 263 ★ Blacks and
the Republic ... 266 ★ Jefferson, Slavery, and Race ... 268 ★ Principles of
Freedom ... 269
REVIEW ... 271
8 . S E C U R I N G T H E R E P U B L I C , 17 9 1–18 15 . . . 2 7 2 POLITICS IN AN AGE OF PASSION ... 273
Hamilton’s Program ... 274 ★ The Emergence of Opposition ... 274 ★
The Jefferson-Hamilton Bargain ... 275 ★ The Impact of the
French Revolution ... 276 ★ Political Parties ... 277 ★ The Whiskey
Rebellion ... 278 ★ The Republican Party ... 279 ★ An Expanding Political
Sphere ... 279 ★ The Democratic-Republican Societies ... 280 ★ The Rights
of Women ... 281 ★ Women and the Republic ... 281
Contents
xv
Voices of Freedom: From Judith Sargent Murray, “On the Equality of
the Sexes” (1790), and From Address of the Democratic-Republican
Society of Pennsylvania (December 18, 1794) ... 282
THE ADAMS PRESIDENCY ... 284 The Election of 1796 ... 284 ★ The “Reign of Witches” ... 285 ★
The Virginia and Kentucky Revolutions ... 286 ★ The “Revolution of
1800” ... 287 ★ Slavery and Politics ... 288 ★ The Haitian Revolution
... 288 ★ Gabriel’s Rebellion ... 289
JEFFERSON IN POWER ... 290 Judicial Review ... 291 ★ The Louisiana Purchase ... 292 ★ Lewis and
Clark ... 294 ★ Incorporating Louisiana ... 294 ★ The Barbary Wars ... 295 ★
The Embargo ... 296 ★ Madison and Pressure for War ... 297
THE “SECOND WAR OF INDEPENDENCE” ... 297 The Indian Response ... 298 ★ Tecumseh’s Vision ... 298 ★ The War of
1812 ... 299 ★ The War’s Aftermath ... 302 ★ The End of the Federalist
Party ... 303
REVIEW ... 305
9 . T H E M A R K E T R E V O L U T I O N , 18 0 0 –18 4 0 . . . 3 0 6 A NEW ECONOMY ... 308
Roads and Steamboats ... 309 ★ The Erie Canal ... 309 ★ Railroads and
the Telegraph ... 311 ★ The Rise of the West ... 312 ★ The Cotton
Kingdom ... 315 ★ The Unfree Westward Movement ... 317
MARKET SOCIETY ... 318 Commercial Farmers ... 318 ★ The Growth of Cities ... 319 ★ The Factory
System ... 319 ★ The Industrial Worker ... 323 ★ The “Mill Girls” ... 323 ★
The Growth of Immigration ... 324 ★ Irish and German Newcomers ...
324 ★ The Rise of Nativism ... 326 ★ The Transformation of Law ... 327
THE FREE INDIVIDUAL ... 328 The West and Freedom ... 329 ★ The Transcendentalists ... 330 ★
Individualism ... 330
Voices of Freedom: From Ralph Waldo Emerson, “The American Scholar”
(1837), and From “Factory Life as It Is, by an Operative” (1845) ... 332
The Second Great Awakening ... 334 ★ The Awakening’s Impact ... 335 ★
The Emergence of Mormonism ... 336
THE LIMITS OF PROSPERITY ... 337 Liberty and Prosperity ... 337 ★ Race and Opportunity ... 338 ★ The Cult
of Domesticity ... 339 ★ Women and Work ... 340 ★ The Early Labor
Movement ... 341 ★ The “Liberty of Living” ... 342
REVIEW ... 345
xvi
Contents
10 . D E M O C R A C Y I N A M E R I C A , 18 15 –18 4 0 . . . 3 4 6 THE TRIUMPH OF DEMOCRACY ... 348
Property and Democracy ... 348 ★ The Dorr War ... 348 ★ Tocqueville on
Democracy ... 349 ★ The Information Revolution ... 350 ★ The Limits of
Democracy ... 351 ★ A Racial Democracy ... 352 ★ Race and Class ... 353
NATIONALISM AND ITS DISCONTENTS ... 353 The American System ... 353 ★ Banks and Money ... 355 ★ The Panic of ...
1819 ... 355 ★ The Politics of the Panic ... 356 ★ The Missouri Controversy
... 356 ★ The Slavery Question ... 358
NATION, SECTION, AND PARTY ... 359 The United States and the Latin American Wars of Independence ... 359 ★
The Monroe Doctrine ... 360 ★ The Election of 1824 ... 361
Voices of Freedom: From President James Monroe, Annual Message
to Congress (1823), and From John C. Calhoun, “A Disquisition on
Government” (ca. 1845) ... 362
The Nationalism of John Quincy Adams ... 364 ★ “Liberty Is
Power” ... 365 ★ Martin Van Buren and the Democratic Party ... 365 ★
The Election of 1828 ... 366
THE AGE OF JACKSON ... 367 The Party System ... 367 ★ Democrats and Whigs ... 368 ★ Public and
Private Freedom ... 369 ★ Politics and Morality ... 370 ★ South Carolina
and Nullification ... 371 ★ Calhoun’s Political Theory ... 371 ★ The
Nullification Crisis ... 373 ★ Indian Removal ... 374 ★ The Supreme Court
and the Indians ... 374
THE BANK WAR AND AFTER ... 377 Biddle’s Bank ... 377 ★ The Pet Banks and the Economy ... 379 ★
The Panic of 1837 ... 380 ★ Van Buren in Office ... 380 ★ The Election
of 1840 ... 381 ★ His Accidency ... 382
REVIEW ... 384
PA R T 3 : SL AV E RY, F R E E DOM, A N D T H E
CR ISIS OF T H E U N ION, 18 4 0–18 7 7
11. T H E P E C U L I A R I N S T I T U T I O N . . . 3 8 8 THE OLD SOUTH ... 390
Cotton Is King ... 390 ★ The Second Middle Passage ... 391 ★ Slavery and
the Nation ... 391 ★ The Southern Economy ... 393 ★ Plain Folk of the Old
South ... 394 ★ The Planter Class ... 395 ★ The Paternalist Ethos ... 396 ★
Contents
xvii
The Code of Honor ... 396 ★ The Proslavery Argument ... 398 ★ Abolition
in the Americas ... 399 ★ Slavery and Liberty ... 400 ★ Slavery and
Civilization ... 400
LIFE UNDER SLAVERY ... 401 Slaves and the Law ... 401 ★ Conditions of Slave Life ... 402 ★ Free Blacks
in the Old South ... 403
Voices of Freedom: From Letter by Joseph Taper to Joseph Long
(1840), and From “Slavery and the Bible” (1850) ... 404
The Upper and Lower South ... 407 ★ Slave Labor ... 408 ★ Gang Labor and
Task Labor ... 408 ★ Slavery in the Cities ... 410 ★ Maintaining Order ... 410
SLAVE CULTURE ... 411 The Slave Family ... 412 ★ The Threat of Sale ... 412 ★ Gender Roles
among Slaves ... 413 ★ Slave Religion ... 413 ★ The Gospel of Freedom ...
414 ★ The Desire for Liberty ... 415
RESISTANCE TO SLAVERY ... 416 Forms of Resistance ... 416 ★ Fugitive Slaves ... 418 ★ The Amistad ... 419 ★
Slave Revolts ... 419 ★ Nat Turner’s Rebellion ... 420
REVIEW ... 423
12 . A N A G E O F R E F O R M , 18 2 0 –18 4 0 . . . 4 2 4 THE REFORM IMPULSE ... 425
Utopian Communities ... 426 ★ The Shakers ... 426 ★ Oneida ... 427 ★
Worldly Communities ... 428 ★ The Owenites ... 429 ★ Religion and
Reform ... 430 ★ The Temperance Movement ... 431 ★ Critics of
Reform ... 431 ★ Reformers and Freedom ... 432 ★ The Invention of the
Asylum ... 433 ★ The Common School ... 433
THE CRUSADE AGAINST SLAVERY ... 435 Colonization ... 435 ★ Blacks and Colonization ... 435 ★ Militant Abolitionism
... 436 ★ The Emergence of Garrison ... 437 ★ Spreading the Abolitionist
Message ... 437 ★ Slavery and Moral Suasion ... 439 ★ Abolitionists and the
Idea of Freedom ... 439 ★ A New Vision of America ... 440
BLACK AND WHITE ABOLITIONISM ... 441 Black Abolitionists ... 441 ★ Abolitionism and Race ... 442 ★ Slavery and
American Freedom ... 443 ★ Gentlemen of Property and Standing ... 443 ★
Slavery and Civil Liberties ... 445
THE ORIGINS OF FEMINISM ... 446 The Rise of the Public Woman ... 446 ★ Women and Free Speech ... 447 ★
Women’s Rights ... 448 ★ Feminism and Freedom ... 449
Voices of Freedom: From Angelina Grimké, Letter in The Liberator
(August 2, 1837), and From Frederick Douglass, Speech on July 5, 1852,
Rochester, New York ... 450
xviii
Contents
Women and Work ... 452 ★ The Slavery of Sex ... 453 ★ “Social
Freedom” ... 453 ★ The Abolitionist Schism ... 454
REVIEW ... 457
13 . A H O U S E D I V I D E D , 18 4 0 –18 6 1 . . . 4 5 8 FRUITS OF MANIFEST DESTINY ... 459
Continental Expansion ... 459 ★ The Mexican Frontier: New Mexico and
California ... 460 ★ The Texas Revolt ... 460 ★ The Election of 1844 ...
463 ★ The Road to War ... 464 ★ The War and Its Critics ... 465 ★ Combat
in Mexico ... 466 ★ Race and Manifest Destiny ... 468 ★ Redefining Race
... 469 ★ Gold-Rush California ... 469 ★ California and the Boundaries of
Freedom ... 470 ★ The Other Gold Rush ... 471 ★ Opening Japan ... 471
A DOSE OF ARSENIC ... 473 The Wilmot Proviso ... 473 ★ The Free Soil Appeal ... 474 ★ Crisis and
Compromise ... 474 ★ The Great Debate ... 475 ★ The Fugitive Slave
Issue ... 475 ★ Douglas and Popular Sovereignty ... 477 ★ The Kansas-
Nebraska Act ... 478
THE RISE OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY ... 479 The Northern Economy ... 479 ★ The Rise and Fall of the
Know-Nothings ... 481 ★ The Free Labor Ideology ... 483 ★ Bleeding
Kansas and the Election of 1856 ... 484
THE EMERGENCE OF LINCOLN ... 485 The Dred Scott Decision ... 485 ★ The Decision’s Aftermath ... 486 ★
Lincoln and Slavery ... 486 ★ The Lincoln-Douglas Campaign ... 487 ★
John Brown at Harpers Ferry ... 489
Voices of Freedom: From The Lincoln-Douglas Debates (1858) ... 490
The Rise of Southern Nationalism ... 492 ★ The Democratic Split ... 493 ★
The Nomination of Lincoln ... 494 ★ The Election of 1860 ... 494
THE IMPENDING CRISIS ... 495 The Secession Movement ... 495 ★ The Secession Crisis ... 496 ★ And the
War Came ... 497
REVIEW ... 501
14 . A N E W B I R T H O F F R E E D O M : T H E C I V I L W A R , 18 6 1–18 6 5 . . . 5 0 2
THE FIRST MODERN WAR ... 503 The Two Combatants ... 504 ★ The Technology of War ... 504 ★ The
Public and the War ... 506 ★ Mobilizing Resources ... 507 ★ Military
Contents
xix
Strategies ... 508 ★ The War Begins ... 509 ★ The War in the East,
1862 ... 509 ★ The War in the West ... 511
THE COMING OF EMANCIPATION ... 511 Slavery and the War ... 511 ★ The Unraveling of Slavery ... 513 ★
Steps toward Emancipation ... 513 ★ Lincoln’s Decision ... 514 ★
The Emancipation Proclamation ... 516 ★ Enlisting Black Troops ... 517 ★
The Black Soldier ... 518
THE SECOND AMERICAN REVOLUTION ... 519 Liberty and Union ... 520 ★ Lincoln’s Vision ... 520 ★ From Union to
Nation ... 521 ★ The War and American Religion ... 522 ★ Liberty in
Wartime ... 523 ★ The North’s Transformation ... 524 ★ Government and
the Economy ... 524 ★ The War and Native Americans ... 525
Voices of Freedom: From Letter of Thomas F. Drayton (April 17, 1861),
and From Abraham Lincoln, Address at Sanitary Fair, Baltimore
(April 18, 1864) ... 526
A New Financial System ... 528 ★ Women and the War ... 528 ★
The Divided North ... 530
THE CONFEDERATE NATION ... 531 Leadership and Government ... 531 ★ The Inner Civil War ... 532 ★
Economic Problems ... 533 ★ Southern Unionists ... 534 ★ Women and the
Confederacy ... 535 ★ Black Soldiers for the Confederacy ... 535
TURNING POINTS ... 536 Gettysburg and Vicksburg ... 536 ★ 1864 ... 537
REHEARSALS FOR RECONSTRUCTION AND THE END OF THE WAR ... 539
The Sea Islands Experiment ... 539 ★ Wartime Reconstruction in the
West ... 540 ★ The Politics of Wartime Reconstruction ... 541 ★ Victory
at Last ... 541 ★ The War and the World ... 543 ★ The War in American
History ... 544
REVIEW ... 547
15 . “ W H A T I S F R E E D O M ? ”: R E C O N S T R U C T I O N , 18 6 5 –18 7 7 . . . 5 4 8
THE MEANING OF FREEDOM ... 550 Blacks and the Meaning of Freedom ... 550 ★ Families in Freedom ... 550 ★
Church and School ... 551 ★ Political Freedom ... 551 ★ Land, Labor, and
Freedom ... 552 ★ Masters without Slaves ... 553 ★ The Free Labor Vision
... 554 ★ The Freedmen’s Bureau ... 555 ★ The Failure of Land Reform
... 556 ★ Toward a New South ... 556 ★ The White Farmer ... 557 ★
The Urban South ... 558 ★ The Aftermath of Slavery ... 559
xx
Contents
Voices of Freedom: From Petition of Committee in Behalf of the
Freedmen to Andrew Johnson (1865), and From A Sharecropping
Contract (1866) ... 560
THE MAKING OF RADICAL RECONSTRUCTION ... 562 Andrew Johnson ... 562 ★ The Failure of Presidential Reconstruction ...
563 ★ The Black Codes ... 563 ★ The Radical Republicans ... 564 ★ The
Origins of Civil Rights ... 565 ★ The Fourteenth Amendment ... 566 ★
The Reconstruction Act ... 566 ★ Impeachment and the Election of Grant
... 567 ★ The Fifteenth Amendment ... 568 ★ The “Great Constitutional
Revolution” ... 569 ★ Boundaries of Freedom ... 570 ★ The Rights of
Women ... 570 ★ Feminists and Radicals ... 571
RADICAL RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH ... 572 “The Tocsin of Freedom” ... 572 ★ The Black Officeholder ... 573 ★
Carpetbaggers and Scalawags ... 574 ★ Southern Republicans in Power
... 575 ★ The Quest for Prosperity ... 576
THE OVERTHROW OF RECONSTRUCTION ... 577 Reconstruction’s Opponents ... 577 ★ “A Reign of Terror” ... 577 ★ The
Liberal Republicans ... 579 ★ The North’s Retreat ... 580 ★ The Triumph of
the Redeemers ... 582 ★ The Disputed Election and Bargain of
1877 ... 582 ★ The End of Reconstruction ... 583
REVIEW ... 585
PA R T 4: T OWA R D A G L OBA L PR ESE NCE ,
18 7 0–19 2 0
16 . A M E R I C A’ S G I L D E D A G E , 18 7 0 –18 9 0 . . . 5 8 8 THE SECOND INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION ... 589
The Industrial Economy ... 590 ★ Railroads and the National Market ...
591 ★ The Spirit of Innovation ... 592 ★ Competition and Consolidation
... 593 ★ The Rise of Andrew Carnegie ... 594 ★ The Triumph of John D.
Rockefeller ... 597 ★ Workers’ Freedom in an Industrial Age ... 598 ★
Sunshine and Shadow: Increasing Wealth and Poverty ... 599
THE TRANSFORMATION OF THE WEST ... 600 A Diverse Region ... 601 ★ Farming on the Middle Border ... 602 ★
Bonanza Farms ... 603 ★ The Cowboy and the Corporate West ... 604 ★
Conflict on the Mormon Frontier ... 605 ★ The Subjugation of the Plains
Indians ... 605
Voices of Freedom: From Ira Steward, “A Second Declaration of
Independence” (1879), and From Andrew Carnegie, “Wealth”
(1889) ... 606
Contents
xxi
“Let Me Be a Free Man” ... 608 ★ Remaking Indian Life ... 610 ★ The
Dawes Act ... 611 ★ Indian Citizenship ... 612 ★ The Ghost Dance and
Wounded Knee ... 613 ★ Settler Societies and Global Wests ... 614
POLITICS IN A GILDED AGE ... 615 The Corruption of Politics ... 615 ★ The Politics of Dead Center ... 616 ★
Government and the Economy ... 617 ★ Reform Legislation ... 618 ★
Political Conflict in the States ... 619
FREEDOM IN THE GILDED AGE ... 620 The Social Problem ... 620 ★ Freedom, Inequality, and Democracy ... 620 ★
Social Darwinism in America ... 621 ★ Liberty of Contract ... 622 ★ The
Courts and Freedom ... 623
LABOR AND THE REPUBLIC ... 624 “The Overwhelming Labor Question” ... 624 ★ The Knights of Labor and the
“Conditions Essential to Liberty” ... 625 ★ Middle-Class Reformers ... 626 ★
Progress and Poverty ... 627 ★ The Cooperative Commonwealth ... 627 ★
Bellamy’s Utopia ... 627 ★ Protestants and Moral Reform ... 628 ★ A Social
Gospel ... 629 ★ The Haymarket Affair ... 629 ★ Labor and Politics ... 631
REVIEW ... 633