A People's History Of The United States Chapter 5:
“A Kind Of Revolution”
By Cindy Arroyo
Why The Author Chose This Title?
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The purpose of the revolution was not intended for the good-being of the
people as the constitution made it seem.
The key motivation for this American war was the struggle for power and
control over colonial assets.
“...sees the Revolution as a multiplicity of variously oppressed and exploited
peoples who preyed upon each other.”(Zinn 88)
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The revolution did not benefit the poor because it left them right where
they started with no gain of wealth. The only thing that they did gain was a
new oppressive government.
What was the American Revolution?
It was an outbreak between the thirteen
colonies and Great Britain which began in
1775.
Due to the Treaty of Paris,the revolution
ended in 1783 resulting in the independence
of the colonies and in a new nation that we
know as The United States,1776.
“...our countrymen have all the folly of the ass and all the passiveness of the
sheep….They are determined not to be free….If we were saved, France and
Spain must save us.”(Zinn 77) - Alexander Hamilton
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White men lacked courage and determination to fight
for they wanted.
A small fraction of men that joined the military service
throughout the war stayed.
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Men wanted in the military were either “hallmarks” of
respectability or at least of full citizenship.
Indians,free Negroes,white servants and less
respectable white men were excluded from the
militia.
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Eventually low class white men were being recruited to
the lack of men willing to battle.
Effects of the American Revolution
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Possible separation of the church and state.
“The northern states made such declarations,but after 1776 hey adopted taxes
that forced everyone to support Christians teachings” (Zinn 83)
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Opportunities for Revolutionary leaders to become more richer, due the
confiscated land from fleeing Loyalists.
“It was distributed in such a way as to give a double opportunity to the
Revolutionary leaders: to enrich themselves and their friends….”(Zinn 84)
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Helped end slavery
“In the Northern states, the combination of blacks in the military, the lack of
powerful economic need for slaves, and the rhetoric of Revolution led to the
end of slavery but very slowly.” (Zinn 88)
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Allowed old customs that benefited the rich to be proclaimed.
“...the exclusions Indians from the new society, the establishment of
supremacy for the rich and powerful in the new nation all this was already
settled in the colonies by the time of the Revolution. With the English out of the
way it could now be put on paper,solidified,regularized, made legitimate by
the Constitution of the United States…” (Zinn 89)
The Constitution
○ Designed to protect our
freedom and rights
from the government.
○ Assembled in
Philadelphia, in the the
State House.
○ Signed on September
17,1787
George Bancroft
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An American historian and Secretary of the Navy who believed that the
Constitution was created as a “legal framework for democracy and equality.”
(Zinn 90)
“The Constitution establishes nothing that interferes with equality
and individuality. It knows nothing of differences by descent, or
opinions, of favored classes, or legalized religion, or the political
power of property. It leaves the individual alongside of the
individual. ... As the sea is made up of drops, American society is
composed of separate, free, and constantly moving atoms, ever in
reciprocal action ... so that the institutions and laws of the country
rise out of the masses of individual thought which, like the waters
of the ocean, are rolling evermore.” (Zinn 90) -George Bancroft
Charles Beard
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Not everyone agreed that the Constitution was fair.
George Beard,a historian, believed the Constitution was a disguise for the rich to
“....either control the government directly or control the laws by which the
government operates.” (Zinn 90)
He researched the economic backgrounds of the men present in Philadelphia in
1787 and found that majority of them were wealthy.
“He wanted to make it clear that he did not think the Constitution was written
merely to benefit the Founding Fathers personally…...Rather, it was to benefit the
groups the Founding Fathers represented, the economic interests they understood and
felt in concrete, definite from through their personal experiences.”(Zinn 91)
Shay’s Rebellion
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Named after Daniel Shay who was a
veteran of the American Revolutionary
War and also one of the leaders of the
rebellion.
The United States was under debt, after to
the revolution, due to Congress borrowing
money to pay accumulating interest to
foreign investors.
Farmers were taxed heavily by the state
which caused many farmers to lose their
lands because they did not have money to
pay the taxes.
The rebellion was against the Articles of
Confederations due to the amount of laws
that did not benefit or helped the working
class.
James Madison
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Wrote articles favoring the Constitution,
along with Alexander Hamilton and John
Jay, came to be known as the Federalist
Papers.
Would belong to the Democrat- Republican
party in the new government.
Argued in Federalist Paper #10 that “...
representative government was needed to
maintain peace in a society ridden by
fractional disputes.” (Zinn 96) Faction
disputes that Zinn clarifies: “These disputes
came from the various and unequal
distribution of property.” (Zinn 96)
The Role of the Bill Of Rights
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Series of Amendments that made the Constitution to be more acceptable among the public.
“These amendments seemed to make the new government a guardian of peoples liberties: to speak,to
publish ,to worship, to petition, to assemble, to be tried fairly, to be secured at home against official
intrusion.” (Zinn 99)
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A concern that was not entirely addressed was if people’
s liberty was safe when put under a government of the
rich and powerful .
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Congressed passed a law opposing the First Amendment
seven years after it was passed in 1792 by Congress,
known as the Sedition Act of 1798.
The Sedition Act of 1798
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Passed by John Adams's administration.
If anything “false, scandalous and malicious” was said or
written to disgrace against the government, Congress or
the President it would be considered a crime.
It was enforced even though it clearly violated the First
Amendment
Everyone knew the basic prescription for a wise and just government. It was so to balance the
contending powers in society that no one power could overwhelm the others and, unchecked, destroy
the liberties that belonged to all. The problem was how to arrange the institutions of government so
that this balance could be achieved. - Bernard Bailyn (Zinn 101)
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The intentions of the Founding Fathers was never to find a balance between
the rich and poor. They wanted what benefited the rich and the powerful.
“ They certainly did not want an equal balance between slaves and masters,
propertyless and property holders, Indians and white.” Zinn(101)
Summary
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In this chapter Zinn developed the idea that the Revolution was mainly
concentrated on gaining power and control.
The American Revolution did not have major changes in the new nation
when it came to who owned the means of production. The powerful and
wealthy individuals were the ones to benefit the most than the working
class from the revolution.
The Founding Fathers were not concern of the welfare of anybody but
themselves.As the new mediators of power, The Founding Fathers reflected
a similar attitude as the Britsh’s attitude towards the colonist.
References
Zinn, Howard. “A People’s History of the United States.” New York:HaperPerennial Modern Classics. 2005. Print.
Encyclopedia Britannica. “George Bancroft.” 2014. Website.http://www.britannica.
com/EBchecked/topic/51366/George-Bancroft
History.com Staff. “Shay’s Rebellion”. History.com.A+E Networks.2009. Web. 30 March 2014
Jghprofhist. “Shays Rebellion.” Online video clip. Youtube. Youtube, 19 Oct. 2009. Web. 30 March 2014
Rbelibrary.. “The Constitution.” Online video clip. Youtube. Youtube, 15 Sep. 2013. Web. 30 March 2014
Ted-ed. “A 3-minute guide to the Bills of Rights” Online video clip. Youtube,30 Oct. 2012. Web 31 March 2014