Articles of Confederation, Colonization and Slavery as Factors That Formed America

A vast interchanging of crops, animals, disease, metals, and goods between the Old World and New World after Christopher Columbus went to the Americas in 1492. Goods that were transported from the Old World to the New World included livestock, crops, and other items. Some notable livestock that was transported over was horses. A common thing brought to the New World was smallpox as the people in the Old World. They had become immune to it because it had been around for so long, but the Natives had never been exposed to it making it deadly. Sugar cane was also brought over, this became a crop that was grown a lot and was a primary good that was traded; later causing slaves to be traded.

Products traded to the New World contained sugar, tobacco, chocolate, potatoes, corn, and tea. Corn was a product that had not been seen in Europe before but was able to grow there because of the wide variety of climate corn can grow in; this became a viable food option there. A notorious item was potatoes, especially in Ireland, as it became a reliable food source and was eaten by many. The Columbian Exchange did not work in favor of the Native Americans as they were taken by disease. The main disease spread in the Native populations were measles and smallpox.

The Columbian Exchange was overall positive for Europe as they did not have to deal with any hardships and only faced positive repercussions with new food supplies. People in Ireland even had a famine based on potatoes where they became the only food source. This change allowed for more food to be produced and more trading partners.

Imperial Models

The Spanish originally settled in the West of South America, the Southwest of America, Florida, and some small islands in the Caribbean area. The Spanish explorer's goals were to get gold, glory and spread god. Often enslaved the Native people and tried to convert them to Christianity, although intermarriage was sometimes seen. The social structure had people from Spain and born there at the top, then people born in New Spain from Spanish parents, people born of Native American and Spanish parents, Native Americans, and finally slaves. A man from Spain who made social reforms and was a historian, he later became a Dominican friar, he stood up for Native Americans.

The French settled in the Canada region, as well as the part that was later to be sold as the Louisiana Purchase. The French had better relationships with the Natives and often would trade with them, mainly for furs. A man from France who navigated the coasts, exploring and mapping as he went. He is most well known for mapping Canada’s Atlantic Ocean coast and the great lakes. The Dutch settled a small amount in Maryland and Delaware, while mostly settling in New York, Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts. They were like the French were they set up fur trading alliances with the Natives, although they did not have as much religious conversion on the Natives. Most of the Native Americans must have opposed the Europeans as they were strangers to them. The Natives had bad relationships with some groups and were fine with others. They attacked some groups and were aggressive towards certain groups, and traded with other groups.

British Colonies of North America

The Jamestown colonies were created for economic profit. All the people wanted to go there because they knew people were making a lot of money and they wanted to become rich. A challenge early settlers faced was starvation, there were little to no farmers and often droughts. There was also a lack of leadership and disease. John Smith was a large reason this settlement survived as he provided stable governing. He promoted farming in the Jamestown settlement and that people grow for their own families, so they work harder to stay alive. The group also started to trade with the Natives nearby introducing them to new crops and goods. They exchanged goods with the Natives and the indigenous groups helped this Jamestown settlement stay afloat.

John Smith was an English explorer, leader, and soldier who became well known for making a settled colony in Jamestown, Virginia. Throughout history, he became well known for his interactions with Pocahontas. The goal of the Puritan settlers in New England was to fix religion and corruption associated with it. They wanted to do this by removing Christian aspects of religion completely. Their society was founded on a document called the Mayflower Compact, this called for equality for all white males.

City upon a hill was referring to the Puritans who went to New England and how they were a model for the world, especially compared to corrupt England. This phrase came to be significant when told by John Winthrop. Anne Hutchinson was a woman who challenged male authority and some specifics of the Puritan teachings. Anne later was sent out of the colony and excommunicated

Each of the colonial regions had their niche of what they would specialize in. Although the southern regions often were fundamentally based on cash crops. This helped the South’s economy a lot as there was a good amount of money flowing through. In the Northern colonies, they were industrializing and making goods to sell and the other regions provided with food. The motives of each place allowed them to each specialize in a certain thing to sell making it a productive country and economy.

Slavery in Colonial America

The reason for the creation of slavery in the British colonies was because slaves were cheap, as well as more efficient of a labor force than indentured servants. The indentured servants were often white Europeans and they needed to pay and could not be worked as hard. With the growth of the cash crop industry, slavery fit like a glove with American society and economic needs.

Examples of the agency that slaves could do are rebellion, but also small inconveniences for the slave owner. Some slaves would steal from their owner, taking his property or some of his future profit, damage tools so they did not have to work as much and make the owners get more tools, or work at a very slow pace so they are still working, but making less profit for the owner. Very rarely there would be large revolts by slaves trying to make it free, although the rebellions never really accomplished much.

Slave culture in British colonies was mostly before African culture, some Christian beliefs (reading the Bible for the literate) and opposing the owners with resistance. Slaves were very united and would marry on the plantation although often split up. The family was another key part of the slave's lives as they did not have much else in their lives.

British Mercantilist Policies

Mercantilism is the belief that a country will become economically stronger through its exports. This concept would also reduce the number of imports. Mercantilism created bad blood between America and Britain, as America felt they were being used and exploited, causing greater issues down the road.

The Navigation Acts were acts passed by Parliament made to strengthen British trading and to limit the British colonies trade with countries other than Britain. Britain created these acts as they were hoping it would allow them to have a tighter grip on their colonies and not let them drift away. These acts were examples of Mercantilism as it made the colonies only able to trade with England promoting mercantilist ideas. Britain thought more cash flow would be headed to Britain and not the other countries with this belief.

The enforcement of the Navigation acts before the French and Indian War was not very strong and a lot would get through without much hesitation. While after the French and Indian War the enforcement of this law skyrocketed and it cracked down much harder on those not following the laws. This difference occurred because the French and Indian War was a nuisance for Britain. Britain wanted to make sure the colonies were within their reach and not act up anymore and they thought cracking down on this law would be beneficial.

Road to Revolution

Overall before the American Revolution, the Americans were angry at Britain for putting an abundance of acts on them that made them feel restrained. The colonists were upset with acts like the stamp and sugar act; these put taxes on molasses, paper, documents, and cards. These were all everyday goods that people wanted to purchase and the extra tax on the good was annoying the colonists.

Taxation without representation is the idea from the colonist that they do not deserve to be taxed or have tight restraints on them without representation in government. Virtual representation was the idea that Parliament members (British) represented the region that they usually did and also spoke for the colonists.

The colonists started to show their frustration with the British by not buying and boycotting British items. In Boston Massachusetts, the colonists rebelled by dumping imported British tea into the harbor, forcing the British to close the Boston port. The upper class and more educated folks retaliated against the British by holding The First Continental Congress in 1774 to talk about how the British were mistreating them. Another form of fighting back came from lower-class people in April of 1775 when they decided to fight the British, this fighting became known as the Battles of Lexington and Concord.

The Sons Of Liberty were a group of colonists that were against the British, they went against British taxation and fought for colonist’s rights. This group was strongest in Massachusetts and would sometimes go as far as to tar and feathering British tax collectors. The Stamp Act Congress was a meeting where they said Parliament was not allowed to tax the colonists and was the first time representatives from several colonies came together to discuss protest against Britain. The Olive Branch Petition was a petition sent by the Second Continental Congress to King George III saying they wanted to resolve their problems with peace and avoid war, this petition was completely shutdown. 1st Continental Congress was a meeting with all of the colonies except Georgia. It was in Philadelphia in 1774, they wanted to figure out what appropriate reactions to British actions were and how these actions threatened their rights. They did not want to leave Britain yet, they just wanted to have a good relationship again.

Republicanism

Republicanism is the idea of governing a republic, the head is usually brought in through an election rather than hereditary means, the government serves at the citizens will. The Republican ideals correspond with Enlightenment ideals because they showed that all people can be smart, make decisions on their own (do not need a government to make all the decisions for them) and they wanted more power for the common people.

Republicanism immediately after the American Revolution was shown as there was more political participation amongst the people. We saw people of all social classes voting and making decisions. This way the government could hear what the people wanted because when the upper class is the only one voting for the lower class is not satisfied.

Republicanism shifted the North’s attitude towards slavery as republicanism supported natural rights and all men created equal. Although, this rebellion did not all happen at once as they only slowly started getting rid of slavery. The result, in the long run, was the end of slavery, but short term there was just a new lingering idea that slavery should not be legal.

The role that women played before the American Revolution was no influence. During the American Revolution, they influenced some political events and they had to take some men’s jobs as they were fighting in the war, as well as caring for the home. After the war, there was a republican motherhood idea where the women were the moral correctors of society. The women were involved in church and were supposed to be the ones educating the next generation. Republican motherhood was the idea that mothers were the caretakers of the home and were to be the ones to educate the children. The women were moral leaders in society, they went to church and made sure people made the correct decision.

Articles of Confederation and Constitution

The Articles of Confederation put most of the power with the states. The creators of the Articles of Confederation did this as the country still feared a strong central government (Britain). The major weaknesses were it could not tax the people, no military, and no executive branch. All of these needed to be fixed because when they wanted to fight or do anything that needed money, they had to ask for donations and could not tax the people. They did not have the government strength that other large countries had.

The Constitution balances state powers and national powers through federalism. When John Marshall was Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, many cases were looked upon and set the foundations for how the future of the system would work. Overall, the power is balanced through the different branches and places like The Senate, House of Representatives, and the President. Senate and House of Representatives represent the state's rights as delegates from each state get sent there. While the President is one person representing the rights of the federal government.

The two major compromises that were made at the Constitutional Convention were the Great Compromise and the ⅗ Compromise. The Great Compromise is what satisfied the large states and small states as they both got what they wanted. In the Senate, all states had the same number of representatives; while in the House of Representatives each state got representatives based on their population. The ⅗ Compromise agreed that slaves counted as ⅗ of a person towards their population, this was crucial as slaves were a large part of the population and state with lots of slaves wanted their slaves to count so they get more delegates in the House of Representatives. A way the constitution limits democracy from the previous Articles of Confederation is adding an Electoral College, small and large state having the same amount of senators, and senators being appointed by state legislatures. This is less democratic as it is less power with the people and more with the government. They made the Constitution less democratic because if it is too democratic it is weak and they saw how weak the Articles of Confederation were and did not want that again.

The Great Compromise created the House of Representatives and the Senate, it made the smaller populated states and the largely populated states fulfilled. The ⅗ Compromise called for slaves being counted as ⅗ of a person when counting the population. This was important as the states with an abundance of slaves wanted a higher population so they had more influence in government.

In the ratification debate over the Constitution, the Anti-Federalists opposed it. This, of course, means the Federalists approved of the Constitution. The Anti-Federalists disapproved because they believed if there was a strong central government, then it would be a threat to the state’s rights. The Federalists so no problem as they were not worried about the state’s rights and thought a strong central government was a necessity. The Bill of Rights was a response to these debates as it now had more protections on people's rights. This also but limits the government in certain areas to make sure they were not overstepping with their power. One of the main concepts it also added was declaring all rights not given to the central government are rights given to states.

The Federalist Papers was a text written by James Madison, John Jay, and Alexander Hamilton, the purpose of the text was to talk about the Constitution and explain how it provided a strong central government while also protecting the people’s rights.

Political Parties and the Washington Presidency

The first two political parties in America were the Federalists and the Democratic-Republican Party (Anti-Federalists). The issue that created these parties was the belief of a strong central government as opposed to states having more power. The Federalists saw Britain as a strong country and that they should have an alliance with them, while the Democratic-Republicans thought that the United States should ally with France because they were going through a rebellion like they did and they helped them separate from Britain. Democratic-Republicans were more linked with agriculture, while the Federalists were more associated with manufacturing. The Federalists had a loose interpretation of the Constitution and the Democratic-Republicans had a strict one.

Jay’s Treaty was created because the United States wanted Britain to stop seizing their boats and do not have British soldiers stationed in USA territory. The treaty ended up being more beneficial for the British than the Americans. All of this was occurring as reminisce of the Revolutionary War. The treaty was approved by the Federalists because it was a treaty with Britain, only making their diplomatic ties stronger. The Democratic-Republicans opposed this because they wanted ties with the French and this was a slap in the face towards France as they signed it with their enemy.

Jefferson’s Presidency

Jefferson’s election was called the “Revolution of 1800” because it was the first time the power in the presidency had switched parties, he had won over John Adams. Jefferson was able to compromise as President when he changed his mind and was flexible with making decisions that were good for the country, not just an idea his political party believed. For example, he loosened up his interpretation of the Constitution and kept some Federalists in office instead of removing them. He passed the Compromise Tariff of 1833 to end South Carolina’s nullification crisis as well.

Jefferson had a difficult time purchasing the Louisiana Purchase because the Constitution did not say anything about the power to buy land from another country. Jefferson was one who interpreted the Constitution strictly and did not want to go against that. This purchase was very important because it nearly doubled the land area of the United States, was the first purchase of land by the United States, and it demonstrated what power the implied powers included. The Missouri Compromise defined the Louisiana Purchase as it set a foundation for how to present slavery would be. In Missouri, we would see slavery present. While in the rest of the territory we would see no slavery allowed. This ultimately meant that the North and no slave states would have more power in the government