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
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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
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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
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Copyright © 2014, 2011, 2008, 2005 by Eric Foner
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Fourth Edition
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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
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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.
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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