America up to and in the nineteenth century
J. Phay / American Lit / 2013
Overview

 Historical (Global) Context
 Culture and Society in 19th-century America
Question
What are the repeating trends and significant ideas in
American history?
J. Phay / American Lit / 2013
Historical (Global)
Context

The Making of a Nation
Rethinking Globalisation
J. Phay / American Lit / 2013
Before 1550

 Spain and Portugal: global naval powers
 European rivalries
 1492: Columbus sailed the ocean blue
 He died refusing to believe he hadn’t found India!
 Destruction of the Aztec empire
 1524 onwards: French exploration of North
American continent
J. Phay / American Lit / 2013
1500 - 1600

 English navigators
make attempts to claim
land
 1587: Roanoke colony
 The lost colony
 1588: Spanish Armada
defeated
 Decline of Spanish
supremacy
J. Phay / American Lit / 2013
J. Phay / American Lit / 2013
The English are Sailing

 Reasons for colonial enterprise:





Only the eldest son inherits
Poor flooding into the cities
Excess workers
Challenge Spanish domination
Religious differences
 Problem: who’ll pay to set up a
colony?
 Solution: Joint-stock companies
J. Phay / American Lit / 2013
The First English
Colonies

 Virginia company
 1607: Jamestown colony
 Searched for gold,
ignored farming
 John Smith: “Work or
starve”
 Invalided back to
England
J. Phay / American Lit / 2013
J. Phay / American Lit / 2013
Failure?

 1609-10: The Starving
Time
 Financial failure
 1624: Virginia
Company bankrupt
 Colony came under
royal rule
J. Phay / American Lit / 2013
1600 - 1700

 Growth of tobacco trade
 Virginia settlement flourishes
 Indentured servitude to man tobacco plantations
 House of Burgesses
 The New England colonies
 1620: the Mayflower and Plymouth colony
J. Phay / American Lit / 2013
Plymouth Colony

 Another accident:
supposed to join
Jamestown colonists
 Lost at sea
 Landed near Cape Cod
 No charter to rule them
 1620: Mayflower compact
 Independent rule!
J. Phay / American Lit / 2013
J. Phay / American Lit / 2013
Thanksgiving

 Landed in November = no harvest
 44 survived out of 102
 How did the colony survive?
 Squanto
 Alliance with Massasoit Indians
 William Bradford
 Harvest festival
 Declared by Lincoln to be a national holiday
J. Phay / American Lit / 2013
The 13 Colonies

J. Phay / American Lit / 2013
The Middle Colonies (1)

 Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Delaware
 More multicultural








English
Swedes
Dutch
Scots
Irish
French
African slaves
Native American tribes
J. Phay / American Lit / 2013
The Middle Colonies (2)

 Middle ground between the “Puritan North” and the
“plantation South”
 More tolerant than their neighbours?
 Fertile ground
 Literally
 In terms of mixing of ideas, religions, etc.
 Benjamin Franklin: printer and philanthropist
J. Phay / American Lit / 2013
Benjamin Franklin

 Printer
 Pennsylvania Gazette
 Poor Richard’s Almanac
 Philanthropist
 Firehouse
 Hospital
 College of Pennsylvania
 Inventor
 The lightning experiment
 Wood burning stove
 Bifocal glasses
J. Phay / American Lit / 2013
The Southern Colonies

 Plantation economy
 Tobacco, rice, indigo, cotton
 Labour intensive
 Indentured servitude to slavery
 1661: Virginia legally established slavery
 All early colonies had slaves, but more in the
Southern colonies because of economic demand!
J. Phay / American Lit / 2013
The Trans-Atlantic Slave
Trade

J. Phay / American Lit / 2013
The Middle Passage

 Journey from West Africa to West Indies
 Three weeks
 “Loose packing”
 “Tight packing”
 By 1700: tens of thousands of slaves
 African diaspora
J. Phay / American Lit / 2013
J. Phay / American Lit / 2013
Slave Codes

 Increasing number of slaves = increasing anxiety for
their white masters
 Slave rebellions
 Slave Codes
 Slaves are property
 Slaves cannot own property
 Not allowed to assemble without the presence of a
white person
 No slave can give testimony against a white person
 No slave can be taught to read or write
 Slave marriages are not recognised
J. Phay / American Lit / 2013
1700 - 1763

 Setting the stage for Revolution
 Enlightenment ideas in Europe
 Newton
 John Locke
 Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Distance from England
“What is the American?”
Tradition of independent rule
Smugglers
Immigrants who never owed allegiance to England in the
first place
 The Zenger Trial: freedom of the press!





J. Phay / American Lit / 2013
Run Up to Revolution

 From ushistory.org:
Many events transpired between the years of 1763 and
1776 that served as short-term causes of the Revolution.
But the roots had already been firmly planted. In many
ways, the American Revolution had been completed
before any of the actual fighting began.
(“The Beginnings of Revolutionary Thinking”)
J. Phay / American Lit / 2013
Meanwhile, Back in
Europe…

 England and France at war (again)
 France loses her possessions in North America
 And develops a desire to humiliate England
 England incurs huge debts
 And tries to recover by taxing her colonies
 American colonists gain fighting experience
J. Phay / American Lit / 2013
George Washington

 “I cannot tell a lie.”
 Born 1732 in Virginia
 Wealthy plantation owner’s
son
 Apprenticed to a surveyor
 Colonel in the French-Indian
War
J. Phay / American Lit / 2013
1763 - 1776

 Disagreement over Ohio settlement
 French lost – ceded the Ohio Valley
to the British
 Britain did not want American
colonists to move in
 Royal Proclamation of 1763
 Colonists are not to cross the
Appalachians
 To the British: “I’m protecting you.”
 To the colonists: “You just want to
control my movements and restrict
my success.”
J. Phay / American Lit / 2013
J. Phay / American Lit / 2013
1763 - 1776

 Writs of Assistance
 British customs officials started exercising their right to
search American ships
 No courts
 British troops stationed in America
 To the British: “I’m protecting you, shouldn’t you play
your part?”
 To the colonists: “You’re sending troops to watch me.”
 Boycott of British goods
 Stamp Act repealed
J. Phay / American Lit / 2013
1763 - 1776

 The Boston Patriots
 1766: Second attempt to tax
American goods directly
 1770: Boston Massacre
 Angry mob at customs house
 British soldiers fired without
orders
 5 men killed
 All taxes repealed except that
on tea
J. Phay / American Lit / 2013
1773: Boston Tea Party

I dressed myself in the costume of an Indian, equipped with a
small hatchet, . . . [and] after having painted my face and hands
with coal dust in the shop of a blacksmith, I repaired to Griffin's
wharf, where the ships lay that contained the tea...
We then were ordered by our commander to open the hatches and
take out all the chests of tea and throw them overboard, and we
immediately proceeded to execute his orders, first cutting and
splitting the chests with our tomahawks, so as thoroughly to
expose them to the effects of the water. In about three hours from
the time we went on board, we had thus broken and thrown
overboard every tea chest to be found in the ship. . . .
– Anonymous, "Account of the Boston Tea Party by a Participant,"
(1773)
J. Phay / American Lit / 2013
1773 - 1776

 Series of punishing Acts
 Stop sea trade
 British gain control over legislative system in Boston
 Direct rule over Quebec
 1774: British take over Boston
 1775: Fighting begins
 The American Revolution has started
 Fought by local militias!
 1776: Declaration of Independence approved by
colonies
J. Phay / American Lit / 2013
Impact of the
Revolution: Slavery

 1781: British general Cornwallis surrenders in
Virginia
 Impact on slavery:




“Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”
1775: First anti-slavery society formed
Northern states begin to ban slavery
British army freed slaves
J. Phay / American Lit / 2013
Impact of the
Revolution: Legislature

 Free to change/add laws
 Land laws: No more primogeniture
 Separation of church and state
 By 1833: even Puritan states no longer used tax dollars
to support the church
J. Phay / American Lit / 2013
Impact of the
Revolution: Gender

Norms
 Men fought in the Revolution
 Women became heads of their households
 Republican motherhood
 To have strong nation, you need enlightened citizens
 To have enlightened citizens, you need enlightened
mothers
 Education + new roles = growing class of outspoken
women
J. Phay / American Lit / 2013
Abigail Adams
I long to hear that you have 
declared an independency. And, by
the way, in the new code of laws
which I suppose it will be necessary
for you to make, I desire you would
remember the ladies and be more
generous and favorable to them
than your ancestors.
Do not put such unlimited power
into the hands of the husbands.
-Letter from Abigail Adams to John
Adams, March 31, 1776
J. Phay / American Lit / 2013
1980s - 1800

 The French Revolution
 Deep political divide in America
 Emergence of two parties:
 Federalists
 Democratic-Republicans
 Election of 1796:
 Adams (Northern states)
 Thomas Jefferson (Southern states)
 Growing North-South divide
J. Phay / American Lit / 2013
Culture and Society of
Nineteenth-Century
America

Economics
Politics
Gender
Race
Literature
J. Phay / American Lit / 2013
A New Century

 A growing nation (literally)
 1776: 13 colonies on the Eastern coast
 By 1821: 11 new states added
 “Growing regional distinctiveness”
 1823: Monroe Declaration
 A “bold new national identity”
(“Social Change and National Development,”
ushistory.org)
J. Phay / American Lit / 2013
A New Century:
Economics

 Industrialisation
 Factory system
 Female workers
 Concentrated in the northeast
 Rise of wage labour
 Growth of banking industry
 South: crisis in tobacco industry
 Eli Whitney’s cotton gin
 Cotton industry takes off to feed Northern mills
J. Phay / American Lit / 2013
The Railroads

 Fed the industrial
revolution
 Rail magnates
 Transcontinental
railroads
 Chinese
 Irish
J. Phay / American Lit / 2013




A New Century:
Religion

Religious revivals
Emphasis on humans’ ability to change for the better
Emphasis on free will
More public roles for women and African Americans
The noise was like the roar of Niagara. The vast sea of
human beings seemed to be agitated as if by a storm ... Some
of the people were singing, others praying, some crying for
mercy. A peculiarly strange sensation came over me. My
heart beat tumultuously, my knees trembled, my lips
quivered, and I felt as though I must fall to the ground.
- (“Religious Transformation,” ushistory.org)
J. Phay / American Lit / 2013
A New Century: Arts
and Culture

 The politics of language
 Webster’s dictionary
 Emergence of American writers
 Washington Irving
 James Fenimor Cooper
 American painters
 Thomas Cole
 John James Audubon
 What does it mean to be an American artist?
J. Phay / American Lit / 2013
J. Phay / American Lit / 2013
J. Phay / American Lit / 2013
A New Century: Gender

 Egalitarian principles
 Women’s greater participation in religious life
 Women moving slowly into public space
 1830s: female schoolteachers outnumber male
 Still paid less than men
 Still few options
 New gender norms?
J. Phay / American Lit / 2013
Changing Ways of Life

 Growth of industrial cities and towns
 Money as a sign of status
 Disease, poverty, crime
 Infrastructure and social services cannot cope
 Haven needed
 Cult of the Home
 Ideals: True Manhood and True Womanhood
J. Phay / American Lit / 2013
Gender

 Binary worldview
Men
Women
Masculine
Feminine
Rational, logical
Emotional, irrational,
intuitive
Harsh world of “business”
Domestic world of “the
home”
Competitive, aggressive
Protective, nurturing
Strong – guides and
teachers
Weak – need guidance
Deal with important
Deal with trivial matters
J. Phay / American Lit / 2013
matters
True Womanhood

Without ignoring accomplishments, or casting a slur upon
any of the graces which serve to adorn society, we must look
deeper for the acquirements which serve to form our ideal of
a perfect woman. The companion of man should be able
thoroughly to sympathize with him — her intellect should be
as well developed as his. We do not believe in the mental
inequality of the sexes; we believe that the man and the
woman have each a work to do, for which they are specially
qualified, and in which they are called to excel. Though the
work is not the same, it is equally noble, and demands an
equal exercise of capacity.
From Godey's Lady's Book, Vol. LIII, July to December, 1856.
J. Phay / American Lit / 2013
Systemic Oppression (1)

 Laws that stem from and reinforce inequality?
 Divorce laws
 Property laws
 Right to vote
 But apart from law?
J. Phay / American Lit / 2013
Systemic Oppression (2)

 Not seen as important = overlooked?
 “Domestic technology”
 Women’s healthcare
 Social expectations
 Women and marriage
 Women and children
 Women and other women?
J. Phay / American Lit / 2013
Systemic Oppression (3)

 Economic




Lower wages for women
Social sentiment keeps women out of “real jobs”
Money seen as a marker of status
Women cannot bring in money, therefore…?
J. Phay / American Lit / 2013
Widespread Issue

 “It is apparent that even the women think of
themselves as having less important roles than men.”
J. Phay / American Lit / 2013
Changing Social Norms

 Growth of cotton industry
 Increasing numbers of Abolitionists
 First solution: ship slaves back to Africa
 African Americans: “But we built this nation too.
Why should we leave?”
 Increasingly outspoken
 Gag Rule
 Attacks on Abolitionists
J. Phay / American Lit / 2013
The Underground
Railroad

 Helped slaves escape to
freedom in the North
 Operated at night
 Harriet Tubman
 Born a slave
 Escaped
 Returned 19 times to
help other slaves
J. Phay / American Lit / 2013
Uncle Tom’s Cabin

 Harriet Beecher Stowe
 Serialised, then published as a
novel
 Portrays in vivid detail the pain
and trauma suffered by slaves
separated from their families
"So you're the little woman who
wrote the book that made this
great war."
-Abraham Lincoln to Beecher
Stowe
J. Phay / American Lit / 2013
Westward Ho!

 1840: Western territories still controlled by countries
like Mexico
 1845 onwards: “manifest destiny”
 Desire for land
 Discovery of gold in California
 Mission to Christianise the natives
 Imperialism
 1846: War against Mexico
 1847: California secured by the United States
J. Phay / American Lit / 2013
Regional Conflict

 North vs South
 Should slaveholding be allowed in the new territories?
 Balancing act
 More states = more say in the federal government
 Each new slaveholding state must be balanced with an
Abolitionist state
 Kansas-Nebraska Act
 1860: Abraham Lincoln becomes President
 South Carolina secedes
J. Phay / American Lit / 2013
Civil War

 From ushistory.org, “A House Divided”
The Civil War was a tragedy of unimaginable
proportions. For four long and bloody years, Americans
were killed at the hands of other Americans. One of
every 25 American men perished in the war. Over
640,000 soldiers were killed. Many civilians also died —
in numbers often unrecorded.
J. Phay / American Lit / 2013
Civil War (2)

At the battle of Antietam, more Americans were killed
than on any other single day in all of American history.
On that day, 22,719 soldiers fell to their deaths — four
times the number of Americans lost during the D-Day
assault on Normandy in WWII. In fact, more American
soldiers died in the Civil War than in all other
American wars combined.
J. Phay / American Lit / 2013
J. Phay / American Lit / 2013
J. Phay / American Lit / 2013
Aftermath

 1865: North wins, war ends
 Battles fought predominantly in Southern lands




Death toll
Runaway inflation in the South
Destruction of property
Emotional trauma: Way of life destroyed?
J. Phay / American Lit / 2013
J. Phay / American Lit / 2013
J. Phay / American Lit / 2013
Reconstruction: A
Nation Divided

From ushistory.orh, “Reconstruction”:
It was a time of great pain and endless questions. On
what terms would the Confederacy be allowed back
into the Union? Who would establish the terms,
Congress or the President? What was to be the place of
freed blacks in the South? Did Abolition mean that
black men would now enjoy the same status as white
men? What was to be done with the Confederate
leaders, who were seen as traitors by many in the
North?
J. Phay / American Lit / 2013
Toward the Twentieth
Century

 New economic boom
 Factories built for the war continued operations
 1877-1893: American economy doubled in size
 Rise of the tycoons
 John D. Rockefeller – Standard Oil
 Andrew Carnegie – Carnegie Steel
 J. Pierpont Morgan – banker extraordinaire
 The American Dream
 Horatio Alger’s dime novels
J. Phay / American Lit / 2013
Rise of American
Writers

 Edgar Allan Poe
 Ralph Waldo Emerson
 Henry David Thoreau
 Nathaniel Hawthorne
 Mark Twain
 Charlotte Perkins Gilman
 Kate Chopin
 Henry James
 Edith Wharton
J. Phay / American Lit / 2013
A Distinctive Language

YOU don't know about me without you have read a book by
the name of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer; but that ain't no
matter. That book was made by Mr. Mark Twain, and he told
the truth, mainly. There was things which he stretched, but
mainly he told the truth. That is nothing. I never seen
anybody but lied one time or another, without it was Aunt
Polly, or the widow, or maybe Mary. Aunt Polly -- Tom's
Aunt Polly, she is -- and Mary, and the Widow Douglas is all
told about in that book, which is mostly a true book, with
some stretchers, as I said before.
- The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, chapter 1
J. Phay / American Lit / 2013
Other Reactions?

There even are places where English completely
disappears; in America they haven't used it for years.
- Professor Henry Higgins in My Fair Lady
J. Phay / American Lit / 2013
The Great American
Novel

 An ideal or convenient label rather than “objective
truth”?
 Represents the “spirit” of America at that particular
age
 Content
 Form (language)
 E.g., Herman Melville’s Moby Dick
 E.g., Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
 E.g., F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby
J. Phay / American Lit / 2013
Poetry + short stories
Horror + detective
“The Fall of the House
of Usher”
“The Cask of
Amontillado”
“The Purloined Letter”
The Awakening and
Other Stories
The Adventures of Tom
Sawyer
Kate Chopin
The Adventures of
Huckleberry Finn
J. Phay / American Lit / 2013
Henry James
Edith Wharton
Critic, novelist, short story writer
Novelist, interior designer?
Portrait of a Lady
Turn of the Screw
The Age of Innocence
Ethan Frome
Ghost Stories
J. Phay / American Lit / 2013
A Brave New World

 Urbanization overtakes the agricultural life
 New lifestyles
 A new understanding of “family”
 New attitudes toward wealth
 New attitudes toward education
 Compulsory schooling for children
 Higher education for women
 Print explosion: new ideas, new cosmopolitanism
 More time for leisure: baseball
J. Phay / American Lit / 2013
J. Phay / American Lit / 2013
Some Important Ideas?

 Freedom of the individual
 Freedom of the individual versus society
 Relationship with the “Old World”
 What is the American?
 Money, wealth, and their relationship with the
spiritual
 The American dream
J. Phay / American Lit / 2013