THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION
THE WINGS OF FREEDOM
THE FIRST COLONIES
By 1620 English colonies began to
settle in North America. Since
London was 500 miles away,
they had to solve they problems
by themselves. The demand of
liberty was growing and the
relations with England were
deteriorating.By 1770 the
population had increased and
was getting impatient of
economic subordination to
Britain
In the XVII century the NAVIGATION ACT
imposed that all American trade should be
carried in British ships and colonies were
forced to buy all manufactured goods from
the home country.
Between 1754 and 1763 Britain was at war
with France. Britain won the war and
Canada and the lands between the
Appalachian mountains and the Mississipi
River became English possessions
“NO TAXATION WITHOUT
REPRESENTATION”
• To defend its vast territory Britain decided to
keep an army of 10.000 men. It would cost a lot
of money so Britain wanted the colonies to pay.
This money would come from the STAMP ACT, a
tax paid on all official and legal documents. “No
taxation without representation” was the
colonists’ battle cry .It had been inspired by the
principle of MAGNA CHARTA, according to
which taxes could not be imposed on citizens
who had no representatives in the British
Parliament.
The destruction of the statue of King George III at the
foot of Broadway on the Bowling Green occurred on
the night of July 9 after the American army had heard
the reading of the Declaration of Independence. (The
tail of the horse is in the New York Historical
Museum.)
They refused to pay
the stamps and
merchants agreed
not to import goods
from Britain until the
act was dropped.
THE BOSTON TEA PARTY
• In 1770 all the unpopular duties were
repealed except the duty on tea. Three
years later some colonists, dressed up like
Indians, threw a shipload of tea into the
Boston harbour.The port was closed by
the British government. The colonists
decided to prevent British goods from
entering America until the port was opened
again.
BOSTON TEA PARTY
The Boston Tea Party was a protest by the American colonists against Great Britain in which
they destroyed many crates of tea bricks on ships in Boston Harbor. The incident, which took
place on Thursday, December 16, 1773, has been seen as helping to spark the American
Revolution.
THE AMERICAN WAR OF
INDEPENDENCE 1775-1783
• The war began on April 19th 1775 at
Lexington and Concord, near Boston. The
New England shared with Virginia the
leadership of the movement for the
independence.The Congress met on May
15th , 1776 to advise colonies to establish
themselves into states with reorganised
government based on the consent of the
people. Virginia was the first colony to
declare herself independent.
On the 4th July 1776 , in Philadelphia, the Congress signed the
Declaration of Independence written by Thomas Jefferson, a lawyer
from Virginia.
Not only it stressed that the colonies were a new nation but it also
claimed that all men had a natural right to “life, liberty and the pursuit of
happiness” It also stated that governments can rule only if they have
the approval of those they govern.
The writer of the Declaration of
Independence and the Third President of
The USA:
Thomas Jefferson
THE DECLARATION OF
INDEPENDENCE
It consists of three parts:
The first is a statement of the radical philosophy of
the 17th century “that all men are created equal”
The second part is a list of 27 grievances against
king George III .
The third is the declaration of independence. It
appealed to the liberal thought of Europe and
noticed to the world that a new nation was born.
THE AMERICAN DECLARATION OF
INDEPENDENCE
• When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve
the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume, among
the Powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature
and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires
that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
• We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are
endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life,
Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness. That, to secure these rights, Governments are
instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the consent of the governed.
That, whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the
Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying
its foundation on such Principles and organizing its Powers in such form, as to them
shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will
dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and
transient causes; and, accordingly, all experience hath shown, that mankind are more
disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the
forms to which they are accustomed.
But, when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing
invariably the same Object, evinces a design to reduce them
under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to
throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for
their future security. Such has been the patient sufferance of
these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which
constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government.
The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history
of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct
object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these
States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid
world. (…)
The End of The War
1783: the British army was defeated and with the treaty of
Versailles the independence of the colonies was
recognized. America became the symbol of a new start
with its virgin territories and the dream of people coming
from different European countries .
The new republic of the United States of America adopted
a federal constitution in 1787 and George Washington
became the first president
The first president of the USA:
George Washington
SLAVERY
SLAVE TREATMENT:
SLAVE SALE IN EASTON, MARYLAND
Peter, a slave from Baton Rouge,Louisiana,
1863. The scars are a result of a whipping
by his overseer, who was subsequently
discharged. It took two months to recover
from the beating.
The American Civil War
• In the Northern States the American economy was based on
industry. They didn’t need slave labour because slaves were not
suitable for factory work. In the Southern States economy was
based above all on cotton and tobacco plantations so slave labour
was essential to agricultural work and plantation owners considered
slaves fundamental to the economy. In particular cotton farming
could easily to be taught to slaves. It employed women and children,
as well as men. But there were also other conflicting interests. The
Northern States wanted high custom duties on foreign imports to
protect factory products, while the Southern States were in favour of
free trade. In the North many people regarded slaverey as a national
shame. In 1859 a fanatic abolitionist, John Brown , led a raid into
Virginia to encourage slaves to rebel and to capture an arsenal of
the USA. But he was taken prisoner and later hanged. When the
civil war broke out, union troops sang:
Old John Brown's body lies a-mouldering in the grave,
While weep the sons of bondage whom he ventured all to save;
But though he lost his life in struggling for the slave,
His soul is marching on.
Chorus:
Glory, Glory, Hallelujah!
John Brown
His soul is marching on!
When Abraham Lincoln was
elected in 1860 and proclaimed
his intention to abolish slavery,
eleven states from the South
seceded from the Union and
declared themselves the
Confederate States of America
and Jefferson Davis was elected
their president. The Civil war
started in 1861. The most famous
generals of the war were General
Lee for the North and General
Grant for the South.
G. Grant
G. Lee
At last the North won the war.
Five days after the war ended
Lincoln, who, in 1863, had
issued
The Emancipation Proclamation
to abolish slavery, was
assassinated while watching a
performance at a theatre in
Washington.
The North lost his great leader.
Uncle Tom’s cabin
By
Harriet Beecher
Stowe
Harriet Beecher
Stowe
•
•
•
•
Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811-1896) is best known today as the author of
Uncle Tom's Cabin, which helped galvanize the abolitionist cause and
contributed to the outbreak of the Civil War. Uncle Tom's Cabin sold over
10,000 copies in the first week and was a best seller of its day .
“So you are the little girl who wrote the book that started this great war!”
These words uttered by Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War, are a signal
of the celebrity of “Uncle Tom’s Cabin”.
Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811-1869), born at Lictchfield, Connecticut,worked
as a techer before moving to Cincinnati, Ohio with her family in 1832. In
1836 she married Calvin Stowe and had seven children. Cincinnati was the
border between South and North and therefore it was involved in the drama
of the Civil War. After the death of one of her children, she returned to New
England and committed herself in the condemnation of the brutality of
slavery.She began her story of Uncle Tom, a black Christ, and serialized it in
an anti-slavery newspaper.For many years of her life, she had avoided any
allusion to the subject of slavery, considering it too painful to be inquired to.
• But since the legislative act of 1850. when she heard with perfect
surprise and consternation, Christian people actually recommending
the remanding escaped fugitives into slavery, as a duty of good
citizens-when she heard compassionate and estimable people in the
free state of North to discuss about Christian duty- she realized taht
they didn’t know what slavery was, and from this arose her desire to
write about a living dramatic reality.The writer had lived for many
years on the frontier line of slave states, and had had great
opportunities of observation among those who formerly were slaves.
They had been in her family as servants and when other schools
didn’t want black pupils, she instructed them in a family school, with
her own children. The book has a strong dramatic quality because
she tells true stories inspired by personal experiences or testified by
missionaries and friends.
THE PLOT
•
•
•
•
Uncle Tom’s Cabin begins with the description of a pleasant Kentucky
plantation where The Shelby live, surrounded by their slaves.They have a
good relationship with them, especially with Tom who is loved and
respected by everybody. But Colonel Shelby is compelled to sell Tom and a
little boy ,Harry, because of economic problems.Henry succeeds to escape
with his mother Eliza and takes refuge in Canada.
Tom is sold and sent to Louisiana. His new master is Augustine St. Clare, a
byronic character trapped in a bad marriage, who lives only for his beloved
daughter, Eva. He treats his slaves well and respects Tom so much that he
decides to free him. But after the death of Eva, he is involved in a tragic
quarrel and dies before freeing Tom. His wife decides to sell all the slaves.
Tom is sold to a cruel master , Simon Legree and is brought to a cotton
plantation, where he dies after the persecution and the torture of his master.
George Shelby, Colonel ‘s son. Who wants to buy Tom and free him, arrives
at the plantation too late, but helps two slaves , Cassy and Emmeline, to
escape.
Tom is the protagonist and the main theme is his refusal to submit to
spiritual tyranny as he had earlier submitted to the separation from his
family. His assertin that he belongs not to his master but to Jesus,
constitues his rebellion. He will not disobey God to obey his heartly master.
Thus Tom become a Christian martyr, tortured on earth and triumphant in
heaven.
From
Uncle Tom's Cabin
by
Harriet Beecher Stowe
The Slave Warehouse
Cap. XXX
The day after the letter arrived in New Orleans, Susan and Emmeline
were attached, and sent to the depot to await a general auction on the
following morning; and as they glimmer faintly upon us in the
moonlight which steals through the grated window, we may listen to
their conversation. Both are weeping, but each quietly, that the other
may not hear. "Mother, just lay your head on my lap, and see if you
can't sleep a little," says the girl, trying to appear calm. "I haven't any
heart to sleep, Em; I can't; it's the last night we may be together!" "O,
mother, don't say so! perhaps we shall get sold together,--who knows?"
"If 't was anybody's else case, I should say so, too, Em," said the
woman; "but I'm so feard of losin' you that I don't see anything but the
danger." "Why, mother, the man said we were both likely, and would
sell well." Susan remembered the man's looks and words. With a deadly
sickness at her heart, she remembered how he had looked at Emmeline's
hands, and lifted up her curly hair, and pronounced her a first-rate
article. Susan had been trained as a Christian, brought up in the daily
reading of the Bible, and had the same horror of her child's being sold to
a life of shame that any other Christian mother might have; but she had
no hope,--no protection. "Mother, I think we might do first rate, if you
could get a place as cook, and I as chambermaid or seamstress, in some
family. I dare say we shall. Let's both look as bright and lively as we
can, and tell all we can do, and perhaps we shall," said Emmeline.
• "I want you to brush your hair all back straight, tomorrow," said Susan.
"What for, mother? I don't look near so well, that way." "Yes, but you'll sell
better so." "I don't see why!" said the child. "Respectable families would be
more apt to buy you, if they saw you looked plain and decent, as if you
wasn't trying to look handsome. I know their ways better 'n you do," said
Susan. "Well, mother, then I will." "And, Emmeline, if we shouldn't ever see
each other again, after tomorrow,--if I'm sold way up on a plantation
somewhere, and you somewhere else,--always remember how you've been
brought up, and all Missis has told you; take your Bible with you, and your
hymn-book; and if you're faithful to the Lord, he'll be faithful to you." So
speaks the poor soul, in sore discouragement; for she knows that tomorrow
any man, however vile and brutal, however godless and merciless, if he only
has money to pay for her, may become owner of her daughter, body and soul;
and then, how is the child to be faithful? She thinks of all this, as she holds
her daughter in her arms, and wishes that she were not handsome and
attractive. It seems almost an aggravation to her to remember how purely
and piously, how much above the ordinary lot, she has been brought up. But
she has no resort but to _pray_; and many such prayers to God have gone up
from those same trim, neatly-arranged, respectable slave-prisons,--prayers
which God has not forgotten, as a coming day shall show; for it is written,
"Who causeth one of these little ones to offend, it were better for him that a
millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the
depths of the sea."
• A little before the sale commenced, a short, broad, muscular man, in a
checked shirt considerably open at the bosom, and pantaloons much the
worse for dirt and wear, elbowed his way through the crowd, like one
who is going actively into a business; and, coming up to the group,
began to examine them systematically. From the moment that Tom saw
him approaching, he felt an immediate and revolting horror at him, that
increased as he came near. He was evidently, though short, of gigantic
strength. His round, bullet head, large, light-gray eyes, with their
shaggy, sandy eyebrows, and stiff, wiry, sun-burned hair, were rather
unprepossessing items, it is to be confessed; his large, coarse mouth was
distended with tobacco, the juice of which, from time to time, he ejected
from him with great decision and explosive force; his hands were
immensely large, hairy, sun-burned, freckled, and very dirty, and
garnished with long nails, in a very foul condition. This man proceeded
to a very free personal examination of the lot. He seized Tom by the
jaw, and pulled open his mouth to inspect his teeth; made him strip up
his sleeve, to show his muscle; turned him round, made him jump and
spring, to show his paces. "Where was you raised?" he added, briefly, to
these investigations. "In Kintuck, Mas'r," said Tom, looking about, as if
for deliverance. "What have you done?" "Had care of Mas'r's farm," said
Tom.
We have hundreds more books for your enjoyment. Read them all!
"Likely story!" said the other, shortly, as he passed on. He paused a moment
before Dolph; then spitting a discharge of tobacco-juice on his well-blacked
boots, and giving a contemptuous umph, he walked on. Again he stopped
before Susan and Emmeline. He put out his heavy, dirty hand, and drew the
girl towards him; passed it over her neck and bust, felt her arms, looked at
her teeth, and then pushed her back against her mother, whose patient face
showed the suffering she had been going through at every motion of the
hideous stranger.
The girl was frightened, and began to cry.
"Stop that, you minx!" said the salesman; "no whimpering here,--the sale is
going to begin." And accordingly the sale begun.
Adolph was knocked off, at a good sum, to the young gentlemen who had
previously stated his intention of buying him; and the other servants of the
St. Clare lot went to various bidders.
"Now, up with you, boy! d'ye hear?" said the auctioneer to Tom.
He was pushed from the block;--the short, bullet-headed man seizing him
roughly by the shoulder, pushed him to one side, saying, in a harsh voice,
"Stand there, _you!_"
Identikit of Simon Legree, Tom’s new Master,from H. B.
Stowe’s description
EMMELINE
THE AUCTION
Tom stepped upon the block, gave a few anxious looks round; all seemed
mingled in a common, indistinct noise,--the clatter of the salesman crying
off his qualifications in French and English, the quick fire of French and
English bids; and almost in a moment came the final thump of the
hammer, and the clear ring on the last syllable of the word _"dollars,"_ as
the auctioneer announced his price, and Tom was made over.--He had a
master!
Tom hardly realized anything; but still the bidding went on,--ratting,
clattering, now French, now English. Down goes the hammer again,-Susan is sold! She goes down from the block, stops, looks wistfully back,-her daughter stretches her hands towards her. She looks with agony in the
face of the man who has bought her,--a respectable middle-aged man, of
benevolent countenance.
"Likely story!" said the other, shortly, as he passed on. He paused a moment
before Dolph; then spitting a discharge of tobacco-juice on his wellblacked boots, and giving a contemptuous umph, he walked on. Again he
stopped before Susan and Emmeline. He put out his heavy, dirty hand,
and drew the girl towards him; passed it over her neck and bust, felt her
arms, looked at her teeth, and then pushed her back against her mother,
whose patient face showed the suffering she had been going through at
every motion of the hideous stranger.
The girl was frightened, and began to cry.
“Stop that, you minx!" said the salesman; "no whimpering here,--the sale is going to
begin." And accordingly the sale begun.
Adolph was knocked off, at a good sum, to the young gentlemen who had previously
stated his intention of buying him; and the other servants of the St. Clare lot went to
various bidders.
"Now, up with you, boy! d'ye hear?" said the auctioneer to Tom.
Tom stepped upon the block, gave a few anxious looks round; all seemed mingled in a
common, indistinct noise,--the clatter of the salesman crying off his qualifications in
French and English, the quick fire of French and English bids; and almost in a
moment came the final thump of the hammer, and the clear ring on the last syllable of
the word _"dollars,"_ as the auctioneer announced his price, and Tom was made over.-He had a master!
He was pushed from the block;--the short, bullet-headed man seizing him roughly by
the shoulder, pushed him to one side, saying, in a harsh voice, "Stand there, _you!_"
Tom hardly realized anything; but still the bidding went on,--ratting, clattering, now
French, now English. Down goes the hammer again,--Susan is sold! She goes down
from the block, stops, looks wistfully back,--her daughter stretches her hands towards
her. She looks with agony in the face of the man who has bought her,--a respectable
middle-aged man, of benevolent countenance.
"O, Mas'r, please do buy my daughter!"
"I'd like to, but I'm afraid I can't afford it!" said the gentleman, looking, with painful interest,
as the young girl mounted the block, and looked around her with a frightened and timid glance.
The blood flushes painfully in her otherwise colorless cheek, her eye has a feverish fire, and her
mother groans to see that she looks more beautiful than she ever saw her before. The auctioneer
sees his advantage, and expatiates volubly in mingled French and English, and bids rise in
rapid succession.
"I'll do anything in reason," said the benevolent-looking gentleman, pressing in and joining with
the bids. In a few moments they have run beyond his purse. He is silent; the auctioneer grows
warmer; but bids gradually drop off. It lies now between an aristocratic old citizen and our
bullet-headed acquaintance. The citizen bids for a few turns, contemptuously measuring his
opponent; but the bullet-head has the advantage over him, both in obstinacy and concealed
length of purse, and the controversy lasts but a moment; the hammer falls,--he has got the girl,
body and soul, unless God help her!
Her master is Mr. Legree, who owns a cotton plantation on the Red river. She is pushed along
into the same lot with Tom and two other men, and goes off, weeping as she goes.
A movie poster from Kroger Babb's 1965 production of Uncle Tom's
Cabin
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
SITOGRAFIA:
www.americancivilwar.com
http://enwikipedia.org
http://lcweb2.loc.gov
http://jefferson.village.virginia.edu
www.ushistory.org
www.constitution.org
BIBLIOGRAFIA
• Only Connect. Spiazzi, Tavella, ed. Oxford
• The Golden String.Ansaldo,Giuli. Ed.
Petrini
• Uncle Tom’s Cabin. H.B. Stowe. Ed.
Oxford
STUDENTS’ ACTIVITIES
• Research a painting on the internet which could
be representative of the American Revolution
• Find information about the first American
colonies
• Imagine to be a journalist and write an article
about the Boston Tea Party
• Analyze the Declaration of the Independence
and identify its main principles
• Imagine to be Thomas Jefferson who is writing a
draft of The Declaration of Independence
• Imagine to be a colonist and write a letter of
protest to King George III
(The Slave Warehouse):
Questions:
Who are Emmeline and Susan?
Where are they?
What’s their mood
What does Susan remember with a sense of
anguish?
What does Emmeline hope?
Susan suggests something about her hair: what’s her aim?
Why is Bible important for a slave?
Why is Susan so worried?
Emmeline is considered “a first rate article”: is that positive
or negative for her?
What do you yhink about the two women personality?
• Find the physical details referring to Simon
Legree(build, head hair,mouth,hands) and
describe his clothes.
• Draw an identikit of S. Legree