Session 5

I. The Mayflower Voyage & Mayflower Compact
II. Constitutional Convention and Birth of the
Constitution
III. Economic Crisis in the 1920s
IV. Racial Crises from 1860s to 1960s

I. Mayflower Compact Background
Martin Luther and the Protestant Reformation
1517

Background 2: Reformation in England
The Church of England:
 The separation of the Church of England (or Anglican
Church) from Rome under Henry VIII , beginning in 1529 and completed in 1537.
 a middle way ( via media ) between the Roman Catholic and Protestant traditions.
 Bloody Mary (1553-1558)
 Virgin Elizabeth (1558-1603)
 James VI & I (1603-25)

• Seeking to bring the Church to a state of purity that would match Christianity as it had been in the time of Christ.
• During Elizabeth's reign the Marian exiles
(Protestants who'd fled England during "Bloody
Mary's" reign) had returned from the Continent, full of enthusiasm to set the Anglican church straight. By the end of her reign, these believers were still committed to working within the Church of England to "purify" it (hence the term "Puritans").

James I’s anti-Protestants policy:
Smaller groups of the Puritans came to the conclusion that it was fruitless to struggle any more within the Church of England. These were named
Separatists, and it was this group to which
American Pilgrim ancestors belonged.
Separatists not only had given up on trying to reform the Anglican church, they also wanted to separate themselves from the corruptions of the world. They believed they were chosen of God and wanted to set up an environment where they could worship as they wished.

II. The Mayflower Voyage & Crisis
Separatists in Holland
A land without a government
Voyage to the new world:
9/20/ 1620- 11/21/1620
See the movie

The Birth of the Mayflower Compact:
Crisis turned into an opportunity
The Mayflower Compact was signed by 41 male adults on 11
November 1620 on board the Mayflower

"In the name of God, Amen. We, …… covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil Body
Politick, for our better Ordering and Preservation, and Furtherance of the Ends aforesaid; And by
Virtue hereof to enact, constitute, and frame, such just and equal Laws, Ordinances, Acts,
Constitutions and Offices, from time to time, as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the
General good of the Colony; unto which we promise all due submission and obedience."

The Mayflower Compact: A solid foundation for a great nation and civilization in the world
Creation and opportunity:
The Mayflower Compact is the first document in American history demonstrating the attempt to form a government based of the concept that government should derive its power from the “consent of the governed.” It not only led to survival, success and prosperity of this community, but it also turned out to be the foundation of the American constitution and corner stone of the American government.

Only 53 of 102 passengers was alive by November, 1621
John Winthrop, the New World would become a beacon of religious light, a model of spiritual promise, a "citty upon a hill.”

Comparison between China and U.S.
The Mayflower Compact, Foundation of American Democracy
Great Yu, Founder of China’s Authoritarian Rule

Politicians
John Adams and John Quincy Adams - John Alden
President Zachary Taylor - Issac Allerton
President Ulysses S. Grant - Richard Warren
President James Garfield-John Billington
President Franklin D. Roosevelt-Richard Warren
Presidents George Bush Senior and Junior-John
Howland
Politician Sarah Palin-Henry Samson
Politician Dan Quayle-Myles Standish

Astronauts
Alan B. Shepard-Richard Warren
Actors and Singers
Marilyn Monroe-John Alden
Orson Welles-John Alden
Clint Eastwood-William Bradford
Alec and Stephen Baldwin-John Howland
Humphrey Bogart-John Howland
Dick Van Dyke-Myles Standish
Christopher Lloyd-John Howland
Richard Gere-Samuel Fuller
Christopher Reeve-William Bradford
Singer Bing Crosby-William Brewster

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Authors and Publishers
Noah Webster of Webster's dictionary-William
Bradford
Poet Ralph Waldo Emerson-Elizabeth Tilley
Poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow-John Alden
Publisher Hugh Hefner-William Bradford
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Inventors
George Eastman of the Eastman Kodak Company-William Bradford
Military Commander
George McClellan-William Bradford
Religious Leaders
Joseph Smith-John Howland

What would happen if the
Mayflower arrived in Jamestown,
Virginia instead of Plymouth?

Table of Contents
I.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Failure of the Confederation
Debts crisis & economic depression
Military revolt (the Newburgh
Conspiracy )
Shay’s rebellion
Foreign threats

II-1. The Confederation: A Failure of National
Government
Confederation:
 A product of the war to gain its independence.
 Power belongs to the parts rather than to the whole. A league of friendship rather than a nation, because "Each state retains its sovereignty, freedom, and independence.”
 No power to tax its citizens.
 Expenditures by the United States of America will be paid by funds raised by state legislatures, and apportioned to the states based on the real property values.
But no an authority to enforce it.

Any amendment to the Articles needs to be unanimously approved by all the 13 states.
 To avoid a too powerful leader like British
Crown, there was no executive officer as the national leader.

II-2. Financial & Economic Difficulties
Financial difficulties:
To support the war, the Congress issued the continental currency:
By the end of 1778, Continentals retained from 1/5 to
1/7 of their face value. By 1780, the bills were worth
1/40th of face value. Later the paper money had the expression “not worth a continental”

Continue
•
• Huge debt
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•
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Economic depression from 1784-1785
Domestic market shrank due to loss of 20% population, and state tariffs blocked free trade
Market abroad was blocked by Britain
Home industry was no match to English cheap products

II-3. Military Revolt in 1783
Newburgh Conspiracy in 1783 http://www.encyclopedia.com/video/UHY1kDirTx4-libertys-kids-38-man-who.aspx
Washington would not use the army to threaten the civil government: a course, which he believed, would violate the principles of republicanism for which they had all been fighting.
His message was that they should oppose anyone
"who wickedly attempts to open the floodgates of civil discord and deluge our rising empire in blood."
The outcome: a peaceful solution - a life pension of half pay became a five years full pay.

No power to tax its citizens.
 Expenditures by the United States of
America will be paid by funds raised by state legislatures, and apportioned to the states based on the real property values.
But no an authority to enforce it.
Any amendment to the Articles needs to be unanimously approved by all the 13 states.

Shay’s rebellion in 1787
•
•
•
A soldier in the Continental Army:
Battle of Lexington
Battle of Bunker Hill
Battle of Saratoga
The political struggles were primarily between "the class with, and [the] class without, property." James Madison http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=3ImIEcsTEVo http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=23vQjYzyx9Q

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Threat from Great Britain trade blockage and its army in Detroit & NY
North Africa pirates threat
Disputes with Spain because of Florida and the
Mississippi River

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Conservative vs. democratic camps
Federalists/nationalists vs. anti-feralists
Large vs. small states
North commercial vs. south agricultural interests
Free states vs. slave states
……

Achievement
A Government of “Checks and Balances”
“Checks & balances” of the executive, the legislative and the judiciary. while the Congress (legislative) has the power to create law, the executive (President) can veto any legislation -- an act which, in turn, can be overridden by Congress.
The President nominates judges to the nation's highest judiciary authority (The Supreme Court), but those nominees must be approved by the Congress.
The Supreme Court, in its turn, has the power to invalidate as "unconstitutional" any law passed by the Congress
Each branch has its powers specifically described, and each would be tied into the other two in such ways as to prevent any one branch from taking over supreme power.

George Washington’s example
Emperor/lifelong ruler in the Republic of
China & People’s Republic of China
 Yuan Shikai
 Chiang Kai-shek
 Mao

The paralysis of the Confederation made the US into a critical crisis from 1783-1787
The constitutional convention seek a solution to solve the challenges.
The birth of Constitution created an opportunity for this new nation
 The thirteen states became a unified nation
 A powerful and also a checks & balanced federal government was established
 A solid political foundation led to a powerful country in the future

Background

America’s territorial expansion
 Industrialization & Inventions
 Immigration & Military Victory
The Great Depression
Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal
The Impact of FDR’s New Deal
Conclusion

III-1. Territorial expansion
The Spanish-American War in 1898

Industrial Revolution & Inventions
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Industrial revolution
Transcontinental railroad: For settlers along the railroad's path, the tracks were a lifeline. More than 7,000 cities and towns west of the Missouri began as Union Pacific depots and water stops. President Lincoln would never see the completion of the transcontinental railroad, but perhaps he foresaw how it would change us. How it would draw
Americans together – by trade, by travel and even by thought.
Inventions: electricity, lights, telegraph, refrigerator & typewriter
Ford’s mass production, Tailor’s scientific management, corporations
New energy-oil
Leading industrial country surpassing Great Britain in 1890,
American industry produced twice as much as Britain

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Immigration & Military Victory
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Immigration:
From 1865 through 1918 an unprecedented and diverse stream of immigrants arrived in the United States, 27.5 million in total
Economic prosperity
• The average annual income (after inflation) of nonfarm workers grew by 75% from 1865 to 1900, and then grew another 33% by
1918
Military victory

With the involvement of the US, the Allies won WWI
People’s mentality
Laissez-faire


Coolidge: "The business of the American people is business." [19]
Hoover: A believer in the efficacy of individualism and business enterprise, with a little coordination by the government, to cure all problems.
 Optimistic to the future

III-2. The Great Depression
Stock market crashed in Oct.29,1929, 89 percent decline in stock prices
In the United States between 1929 and
1933, unemployment soared from 3% of the workforce to 25%
Industrial production had fallen by over half from 1929 to1933
744 banks failed from Oct. to July, 1930. (In all, 9,000 banks failed during the 1930s).
Dust Bowl from 1930-1936/40)

III-3. Roosevelt’s New Deal
R elief - provided instant relief for those who needed (short term).
R ecovery - put the United States' economy on a footing that would make it strong like it was in the 1920s. (Recovery means that it gets back to a previous state).
R eform -fix the economy so that it would never fail to the level that it did in 1929.

III-4. Impact of the New Deal
The doctrine of laissez faire lost its domination. The government began to interference into private business.
 The Securities Act, which created the Securities and
Exchange Commission placed regulations on the stock market, the most classic of examples of the free market system
 The Tennessee Valley Authority, provider of navigation , flood control , electricity generation , fertilizer manufacturing, and economic development in the Tennessee Valley , would create a means by which the federal government would compete with private business, a most revolutionary concept
 Banking regulation, the TVA, SEC, and Social Security have become part of the American way of life.

Economically, the Social Security Act introduced the modern welfare state into the US; pensions at retirement; unemployment benefits; aid to families with dependent children; and some public health care and disability benefits.

Politically, it transferred power from
Wall Street to the nation’s capitol
(specifically the White House).
The Wagner Act helped give unions a dynamic voice in American society. The union movement still today is a solid backer of the
Democratic Party.

Continue
Socially, the government laws
Eliminated sweatshops and deterred child labor. Laws enforcing work hour standards and wages as well as working conditions.
 Moreover, the New Deal rescued the
American farmer and aided African-
Americans more than any other government had done since the end of the Civil War.

Conserved and protected American corporate capitalism by diffusing American radicals charged with bringing increased socialist reform

Huey Long’s “Share-Our-Wealth” proposal http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYOHDM7SN5U&feat ure=related

The Great Depression put the US into another critical crisis. Facing huge unemployment, psychological fear, economic stagnation, and civil unrest, the New Deal was an effort and solution to deal with this crisis. The New Deal turned the crises into another opportunity: on one hand, it created a more fair society; on the other hand, it conserved and protected
American corporate capitalism.

Origin of slavery in America from perspectives of economy and racism
Founding Fathers’ dilemma and a temporary solution
The Civil War in 1860s, a critical crisis
The Civil Rights Movement in 1960s, another serious crisis
The Achievements of the Civil Rights Movement
A Long Journey of Racial Equality
Conclusion

IV-1. Origins of Slavery in America from the
Perspectives of Economy and Racism
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Early history
Africans came to Jamestown, Virginia in 1619 as indentured servants
Massachusetts recognized legal slavery in 1641
Virginia Rule: A slave mother’s children would remain slaves in 1662
Economic root
Racial root
“The white man’s burden” a poem by
Rudyard Kipling justifies to civilize
“savages.”
Movie: African Americans: Terrible Transformation

IV-2. Founding Fathers’ Dilemma and Solution
“All men are created equal” did not cover
African American slaves.
The Constitutional Convention:

Southern States’ argument: slaves are only property, so they do not need to pay tax

Northern states’ argument: proportion number of Congress representatives would be reduced if slaves are not regarded as human beings
 Compromise: each slave is regarded as 3/5 free person.

IV-3. Events Escalated to the Civil War
 Territory expansion intensified conflicts between free states and slave states
 Louisiana Purchase in 1803
 The Mexican-American War in 1846-1848
 Missouri Compromise of 1820
Compromise of 1850-Fugitive Slave Act
 Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe in 1852

Lincoln’s speech: "A house divided against itself cannot stand." I believe this government cannot endure, permanently half slave and half free.
 The last straw -Abraham Lincoln ’s election in
1860

Lincoln: "So this is the little lady who started this great war”

IV-4. The Civil War & the Construction Era
1861-1876
Goals of the Civil War:
 to preserve the union first
 to emancipate all the slaves as the second goal
The Cost of the War
 One of the earliest true industrial wars
 Resulting in the deaths of 620,000 soldiers. Historian
John Huddleston estimates the death toll at ten percent of all Northern males 20 –45 years old, and 30 percent of all Southern white males aged 18 –40
 Psychological scars in America's collective memory

The Emancipation Proclamation in 1863
 Strengthened the Union at the cost of
Confederation
 Confederation lost international support
13 th Amendment: abolished all the slaves in the US
14 th Amendment:
All persons born in the United
States are citizens……
15 th Amendment: granted African Americans the right to vote
Lincohn’s Gettysburg Address: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Dlggkx6mks&feature=related

Jim Crow laws from 1876-1965
Racial segregation in public places
Plessy v. Ferguson in 1896
"Separate but equal" remained standard doctrine in U.S. law until its repudiation in the 1954 Supreme Court decision Brown v. Board of Education
Disfranchisement through literacy test mass racial violence against blacks by Ku
Klux Klan
Movie: the Rise and Fall of the Jim Crow http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ChWXyeUTKg8

IV-6. The Civil Rights Movement 1955-1968
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• Brown vs. Board of Education in 1954
Non-violence resistance strategy
• Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycott, 1955 –1956
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Desegregating Little Rock, 1957
Sit-ins, 1960
Freedom Rides, 1961
March on Washington in 1963

IV-7. Achievements in law
Civil Rights Act of 1964
John F. Kennedy in his civil rights speech of June 11, 1963,
"giving all Americans the right to be served in facilities which are open to the public—hotels, restaurants, theaters, retail stores, and similar establishments," as well as "greater protection for the right to vote."
Voting Rights Act of 1965 outlawed discriminatory voting practices that had been responsible for the widespread disenfranchisement of African Americans in the U.S.

IV-8. Achievements of the Civil Rights Movement
 Barack Obama , the first African American president of the US.
 Thurgood Marshall & Clarence Thomas became the 1 st
& 2 nd African-American Supreme Court Justice.
 Douglas Wilder became the first African-American elected governor in U.S. history in 1989.
 Deval Patrick , current governor of Massachusetts.
 Carol Moseley-Braun the first Senator in 1992.
 8,936 black officeholders in the United States in 2000, showing a net increase of 7,467 since 1970.
 484 black mayors in 2001 .


Chancellor and provost at UMass Boston.
Make “All men are created equal” a reality
 Build a more fair & harmonious society.

IV-9. A long journey of racial equality & harmony
Clyde Kennard (
June 12, 1927 –July 4,
1963)
 1956, 57, 59 to
Southern Mississippi
College






1959 reckless driving by a perjury
1960 “paid theft” sentence of 7 years in prison by a accomplice
Died in 1963
2005: Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour ’s decision not to pardon him
2006: the Mississippi State Parole Board’s decision
2006: Judge Bob Helfrich’s decision:
"To me, this is not a black and white issue; it's a right and wrong issue. To correct that wrong, I am compelled to do the right thing."

Racial challenges put America into a civil war. With the cost of hundreds of thousands people’s lives, American leaders and people avoided a national split, and established a foundation for a rapid industrial development in the second half of the 19 century, and made the US the largest economy by 1890s.

Again racial conflicts put America into social disturbances and violence in 1960s. The success of the Civil Rights Movement made the statement “all men are created equal” become true. However, racial equality & harmony is still an incomplete journey in the history of the United States.

Why did the Civil Rights Movement succeed?
What is the significance of the Civil
Rights Movement?
Is racial issue still a problem in today’s
America?

American people experienced quite a few critical crises in the history. With the wisdom, courage, experience and vision, American people overcame these challenges. They moved forward one step further after solving each crisis.