The Changes in the United States because of the Market Revolution were somewhat minor. "It's catalyst was a series of innovations in transportation and communication. American technology had hardly changed during the colonial era. No Important alterations were made in sailing ships, no major canals were built, and manufacturing continued to be done by hand, with skills passed on from artisan to journeyman and apprentice" (Liberty 313). "The Market Revolution represented an acceleration of developments already under way in the colonial era. Southern planters were marketing the products of slave labor in the international market as early as the seventeenth century" (Liberty 314). "Many Americans devoted their energies to solving the technological problems that inhabited commerce within the country. Thomas Paine spent the 1780's and 1790's no only promoting democracy in America and Europe but also developing a design for an iron bridge, so that rivers could be crossed in all seasons of the year without impeding river traffic" (Liberty 315). The Market Revolution opened new opportunities for economic freedom for many Americans, but some feared that the traditional economic independence would be compromised.
Transcendentalism is the Philosophy of a small group of mid-nineteenth-century New England writers and thinkers, including Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, and Margaret Fuller; they stressed personal and intellectual self reliance. Individualism is the language in the 1820s to describe the increasing emphasis on the pursuit of personal advancement and private fulfillment free of outside interference. "Americans increasingly understood the realm of the self-which came to be called "privacy" as on ewith which reither other individuals nor government had a right to interfere" (Liberty 338). The people were now awair that they had the right to have their own priavacy, they no longer and the fear that they could not have their own thoughts and beleifs.
Each, Emerson and Walden expressed their beleif that Transcendentalism and Individualism is the key to happiness and true freedom. Emerson states, “ I learned that know man in God’s wide earth is either willing or able to help any other man. Help must come from the bosom alone” (Freedom179). Thoreau felt that modern society stifled individual judgments by making men “tools of their tools” trappeed by their jobs due to obsession with acquiring wealth.
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Week 7: Abigale Adams and the American Revolution
The Revolutionary War provided a prime opportunity for disenfranchised individuals to address their own social standings and freedoms because it gave the people the courage to stand up for their own rights and independence. "At a time when many Americans-slaves, servants, women, Indians, apprentices, property less men-were denied full freedom, the struggle against Britain inspired challenges to all sorts of inequalities" (Freedom 111). People now realized that their voice had some meaning, they no longer feared the consequences of not agreeing with what was being done.
Abigail Adam's main argument and point in her letters to her husband was that, "she urged Congress, when it drew up a new "code of Laws," to "remember the ladies." All men, she warned, "would be tyrants if they could" (Liberty 111). She wanted women to have equal rights as men had. she knew that if she didn't speak about it, no one would and that men would continue to view women as not being equal to them. She states that if women do not become equal to men, then the women would rebel against them making her argument have more meaning by having that threat behind it. She just wanted women to be treated fairly, and have the same rights as men had. She sees that it be imperative that women are considered in the making of the new constitution because it will no longer be tolerated that women be treated any less then men.
According to John Adams, the struggle for independence "loosen the bands of government everywhere" because "that children and apprentices were disobedient, that schools and colleges were grown turbulent, that Indians slighted their guardians and Negros grew insolent to their masters" (Freedom 113). He's saying that because of this "looseness" people are becoming evermore defiant to the laws that have been made, making it look as though women are using this as a way to gain more freedoms for themselves. and that the oppressed saw it easier to gain freedoms then that they once thought.
Abigail Adam's main argument and point in her letters to her husband was that, "she urged Congress, when it drew up a new "code of Laws," to "remember the ladies." All men, she warned, "would be tyrants if they could" (Liberty 111). She wanted women to have equal rights as men had. she knew that if she didn't speak about it, no one would and that men would continue to view women as not being equal to them. She states that if women do not become equal to men, then the women would rebel against them making her argument have more meaning by having that threat behind it. She just wanted women to be treated fairly, and have the same rights as men had. She sees that it be imperative that women are considered in the making of the new constitution because it will no longer be tolerated that women be treated any less then men.
According to John Adams, the struggle for independence "loosen the bands of government everywhere" because "that children and apprentices were disobedient, that schools and colleges were grown turbulent, that Indians slighted their guardians and Negros grew insolent to their masters" (Freedom 113). He's saying that because of this "looseness" people are becoming evermore defiant to the laws that have been made, making it look as though women are using this as a way to gain more freedoms for themselves. and that the oppressed saw it easier to gain freedoms then that they once thought.
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Week 6: Virginia Resolution on the Stamp Act
Earlier conflict between the British and other European countries and their respective colonies led to the crisis of the Sugar and Stamp Act, "Pressed for funds because of the enormous expense it had incurred in fighting the Seven Years' War, Parliament for the first time attempted to raise money from direct taxes in the colonies rather than through the regulation of trade" (Freedom 90). The British needed money and decided that this would be a good, fast way to get it. The colonists on the other hand felt that they were being unjustly taxed because they were not able to vote for or against these taxation's. The British just enacted them without the colonists approval.
The British colonial rules were developed a in order to revoke many of the freedoms that the colonists had become accustomed to. Many colony governors were replaced in order to suppress the colonists. The Sugar Act, "also established a new machinery to end widespread smuggling by colonial merchants, and to counteract the tendency of colonial juries to acquit merchants charged with violating trade regulations, it strengthened the admiralty courts, where accused smugglers could be judged without benefit of a jury trial" (Liberty 180). The colonists were outraged, "more and more colonists insisted that Britain had no right to tax them at all, since Americans were unrepresented in the House of Commons. "No taxation without representation" became their rallying cry" (Liberty 182).
The Virginia House of Burgresses adopted the first four resolutions but rejected the final three because the felt they were, "too radical" (Freedom 90). The colonists were not looking for Independence at this time, or war.
The British colonial rules were developed a in order to revoke many of the freedoms that the colonists had become accustomed to. Many colony governors were replaced in order to suppress the colonists. The Sugar Act, "also established a new machinery to end widespread smuggling by colonial merchants, and to counteract the tendency of colonial juries to acquit merchants charged with violating trade regulations, it strengthened the admiralty courts, where accused smugglers could be judged without benefit of a jury trial" (Liberty 180). The colonists were outraged, "more and more colonists insisted that Britain had no right to tax them at all, since Americans were unrepresented in the House of Commons. "No taxation without representation" became their rallying cry" (Liberty 182).
The Virginia House of Burgresses adopted the first four resolutions but rejected the final three because the felt they were, "too radical" (Freedom 90). The colonists were not looking for Independence at this time, or war.
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