HST 211: Survey of USA History

The Catholic University of Eastern Africa

Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
Humanities Department (History)
Date: January 16th 2023
Instructor: Dr. Moindi Kennedy
Email: [email protected]
Phone:254-723-073-818.

CLASS NOTES

Course Description

This is a survey course that aims at tracing the conquest and colonization of America
followed by the creation of the United States of America. Therefore by the end of this
course the students should be able to effectively discuss the origins of North America;
analyse the various historical aspects of the native Indians of America; give reasons for
the European presence in the New World; discuss the impact of the European presence in
the New World; discuss the problems initially faced by the colonists; discuss the writing
of the American constitution and the making of the American Republic and its
contradictions that resulted in the Civil war; and discuss the reconstruction and economic
renewal in the wake of the Civil war that resulted in the rebirth of the American nation by
the end of the 19th century. Since this is generally a rapid survey course that covers more
than four centuries a lot of issues will not be discussed in great detail. Therefore, the
student will be required to do individualized supplementary readings so as to be in a
position to write comprehensive essays and answer the exam questions more
competently. There are many books in the library that can be consulted.

Course Requirements and Evaluation

 Classes will mainly be conducted through lectures and discussions. Students will
be expected to do individualized reading of the recommended textbooks as not all
material will be covered during the lectures given the wide scope of the course.
Therefore, make sure you obtain the recommended textbooks from the library as
this will provide further material. Participation in the class discussions will
guarantee a good grade.
 Students are expected to attend all lectures. Excellent attendance will improve
your overall performance in the course.
 The course will be evaluated through quizzes and class participation (30%) and
Final exam (70%) which will be administered as the course progresses. Students
must sit for all quizzes and exams to guarantee a pass in the course. Other forms
of evaluation will also be discussed as the course progresses.

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 Cheating: cheating in all forms will not be tolerated and will be prosecuted
according to established university procedures. See the student handbook for
specifics.
 Students are encouraged to consult the lecturer during office hours for further
discussion of issues discussed in class. I make myself accessible to all students.
 Cell Phone: Please make sure that your cell phones are turned off during class as
any ringing cell phone disturbs the teaching environment.
 Please note that the lecturer has the discretion to alter the course content as the
lectures progresses.

Course Content
1. Early American History: Native Indian history.
2. Europe and the making of America
3. The Colonial Society: Slavery and the mercantile economy
4. The American Revolution and war of independence
5. The rise of American Republic: The constitution making process and expansion.
6. The Civil War and Emancipation
7. Reconstruction and The Post Civil War Era
8. Rise of White Racism and Black Responses: Rise of Afro- American Nationalism
and the Civil Rights Movement.
9. The USA And World War I
10. The inter war era and The Great Depression (1919-1939)
11. The USA In World War II and Cold War
12. The Civil Rights Movement
13. The USA In the New World Order.

Readings
1. Allen, J., and Betts J.L., (1971) History: USA, New York, Litton Educational
Publishing inc.
2. Risjord N.K., (1988) America: A History of the United States Vol 1: to 1877
(second edition) Prentice Hall,New Jersey , Englewood Cliffs.
3. Bailey T. A., and Kennedy D.M., (1987), The American Pageant: A History of the
Republic Vol 1(9th edition), Lexington, Massachusetts and Toronto, D.C., Heath
and Company.
4. Blum, J. M., et al (1985), The National Experience Vol 1: A History of the United
States to 1877 (6th edition), London and New York, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich
publishers.
5. Berkin C., and Wood L., (1987) Land of Promise: A History of the United States
(Second Edition), Glenview, Illinios, USA, Scott and Co.
6. Bailyn B., et al (1981) The Great Republic: A History of the American People,
Vol 1. Lexington, Massachusetts and Toronto, DC Heath and Co.

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7. Garraty J.A and McCaughey R.A., (1989) A short History of the American Nation
(5th edition), New York, Harper and Row Publishers.
8. Conlin J.R, (1990) The American Past: Past 1: A Survey of American History to
1877, San Diego and New York, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich publishers.
9. Franklin J.H and Moss A.A Jr, (1988) From Slavery to Freedom: A History of
Negro Americans (sixth edition) New York and St Louis, Missouri USA, McGraw-
Hill, Inc.
10. Middleton R., (1997) Colonial America: A History, 1585-1776 (second edition)
Oxford, UK, Blackwell Publishers.

PART I

TOPIC 1: Introduction to American History: An Overview

 American history can be divided into certain key major epochs each of which
fundamentally shaped the history of the country:
 The pre-Colombian era: This period is mainly characterised by the settlement of
indigenous Native American societies in North America during the Stone Age and
Iron Age. Most of the Native Americans migrated from Asia and eventually
arrived into North American through Alaska and eventually spread across the
entire North American continent. By the Iron Age period these people had spread
as far as central and south America where they established the great civilizations
of Mexico and Latin America. These civilizations included The Mayan and Aztec
civilization that is found in modern day Mexico and the Inca civilization that is
today found in Peru. Population grew rapidly in Central and Latin America
because of a conducive climate which could support plenty of resources such as
plants and wild animals. By the time of European conquest the population of
central and South America was nearing 30 million. In North America, the
population was more sparsely distributed in the plains and rangelands because of
the hostile climate.
 The Era of European Conquest and establishment of colonies: 14 th century to 18th
century: This period began with the successful voyage by Christopher Columbus
who initially arrived in the Caribbean Islands but eventually found his was to the
mainland. European conquest led to the destruction of Native American
civilization and the establishment of colonies and western capitalism. During
this period, the economy of North America was basically mercantilist and I slave
trade expanded to support the plantation system established by the European
powers.
 The American War of Independence and Revolution (1776-1783).
 The Emergence of the American nation (the 19th century).
 The Civil War (1861-1865)
 The Era of Reconstruction and Emancipation (1865-1914)
 The Era of the Civil Rights Movement (1870s to 1960s)
 Emergence of USA and a Super Power and Modern America (1945 to present)

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TOPIC 2: Early America: The Pre-Columbian period.
Key Terms: Native Americans, The Iroquois

Key Questions/Issues:
 Who were the original inhabitants of America and what was their social, political
and economic organization?
 How were these societies impacted by the incoming invaders from the 15 th
century onwards?

Early American society and its People

 The indigenous peoples of the North American mainland, including the Alaskan
natives, are commonly believed to have migrated from Asia and this may have
begun over 15000 years ago. Their initial crossing was along the Bering into
Alaska.
 The initial settlers evolved simple Stone Age technologies to sustain their
livelihood. Various types of these Pre-Columbian cultures have been identified
and these include:
 The Clovis Cultures: These were the oldest technology that was mainly based on
stone tools. Clovis tools were mainly flaked flint spear-point shaped and were
mainly used to skin animals and cut objects. This technology was widespread
across America and dates to as early as 10,000-8000 BC.
 The Woodland Culture: This technology mainly evolved in the wooded areas of
eastern and Midwestern USA between 1500 BC and 1000 AD. Sharp wooden
objects were mainly used for hunting, fishing and other activities.
 The Mississippian Cultures: More recent and evolved after the disappearance of
woodland and Clovis cultures. It was more advanced and involved the use of
metals such as bronze, copper and iron as well as wood and stone tools. It led to
improved agriculture and permanent settlements.
 Majority of the pre-Columbian societies were generally stone and wood workers
who possessed rudimentary technology. There is no extensive evidence of the
adaption of iron tools and weapons. These were brought by the invaders, mainly
European.
 The Native American settlement of America generally began from the north and
eventually spread southwards into the eastern USA mainland, south eastern and
western areas. Later most drifted into Mexico and Latin America where they
evolved elaborate civilizations that the Mayan Empire in Central America, the
Aztecs in Mexico and the Inca people in Peru. There were two major areas that
experienced these transformations: the Meso America and Andean areas of South
America.
 These were areas of sub tropical climate that would accommodate large
populations. These advanced civilizations mainly thrived on hunting and
gathering as well as the cultivation of maize as well as root crops such as
potatoes.

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  By the time of European conquest by the 16 th century AD the Native American
populations were practically spread across the Americas and they spoke different
languages, religions and cultures.
 Whereas in Latin America and South America larger states were able to emerge
due to the more conducive sub-tropical climate, in the northern parts of what is
now Canada and the USA with, population was more sparsely distributed due to
the cooler temperate climate that could not sustain large populations. Most of the
settlements in the north could be mainly be found along major waterways, river
valleys and lakes and the woodland areas. Human settlements into the plains and
the desert areas such as Nevada and parts of California were generally sparse.
 By the time of European conquest, the Native American population in American
was numbering more than 10 million people sparsely spread across the region.
However, European conquest decimated most of this population due to the
introduction of germs brought by such diseases such as small pox, yellow fever,
malaria and others. More than 90% of the indigenous population was destroyed in
order to pave way to European settlement.

The Native People of North America

The native people of America fell into hundreds of tribes (approximately 200 tribes)
which were sparsely spread out throughout the entire region of North, Central and South
America. In North America (parts of Canada and USA), these societies could be
categorised into FIVE major clusters:

1. The Arctic and Subarctic Native societies

 The Arctic culture area, a cold, flat, treeless region (actually a frozen desert) near
the Arctic Circle in present-day Alaska, Canada and Greenland, was home to the
Inuit and the Aleut. Both groups spoke, and continue to speak, dialects descended
from what scholars call the Eskimo-Aleut language family. Because it is such an
inhospitable landscape, the Arctic’s population was comparatively small and
scattered. Some of its peoples, especially the Inuit in the northern part of the
region, were nomads, following seals, polar bears and other game as they
migrated across the tundra. In the southern part of the region, the Aleut were a bit
more settled, living in small fishing villages along the shore.
 The Inuit and Aleut had a great deal in common. Many lived in dome-shaped
houses made of sod or timber (or, in the North, ice blocks). They used seal and
otter skins to make warm, weatherproof clothing, aerodynamic dogsleds and long,
open fishing boats (kayaks in Inuit; baidarkas in Aleut).
 By the time the United States purchased Alaska in 1867, decades of oppression
and exposure to European diseases had taken their toll: The native population had
dropped to just 2,500; the descendants of these survivors still make their home in
the area today.
 To the south of the Artic region is the Subarctic region which was largely a
swampy area covered by pine forests and water-logged tundra. This area covers
much of inland Alaska and Canada and was mainly sparsely populated by
communities that survived through the hunting of sea and animals and birds that

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 thrived in the swampy areas. Movement was largely difficult in this area and the
region largely remained remote and less affected by European settlement.

2. The Mississippi Mound Builders (The Mississippi River Basin societies).

 These were the natives who were mainly found along the Mississippi river valley
all the way from the Great Lakes region in the north to the Gulf of Mexico in the
south.
 The Mississippi mound building culture is dates to around 1200 BC to 600 AD
and it appears to be more recent compared to the Clovis flint spear culture (9000-
8000 BC) and the woodland culture (2200-700 BC).
 One of the unique features of the Mississippi mound building culture was the
building of permanent mounds which mainly served as burial tombs. The
Mississippi people lived in large settlements and extensively used iron tools and
woven fabrics. They also survived on fishing and hunting and gathering of fruits
and other wild crops.
 By the time of European conquest, the mound building culture was on the decline
due to inter-tribal conflict and infiltration by other tribes.
 To the south East of the Mississippi river basin in the region of Florida and the
Gulf of Mexico the region was largely swampy with good soils ideal for
agriculture. Communities here grew a variety of crops that included maize,
beans, squash, tobacco and sunflower that formed the basis of a thriving local
barter market. The livelihood of these societies was disrupted by the Spanish
invasion from the 15th century onwards.

3. The Iroquois (The North East Native Americans)

 The Iroquois people are part of the native people of the north eastern parts of
USA. This region stretches from the Atlantic coastline in the East to the
Mississippi River in the West, and from the Great Lakes in the North to North
Carolina and Tennessee in the South.
 The Iroquois in particular inhabited the region of New York State that borders
Quebec and Ontario in the north and stretches southwards along the Appalachian
Ranges into Virginia, Kentucky and Tennessee.
 Among the north eastern Native Americans, the Iroquois appears to be the most
dominant as they were well organised into nations or tribes each of which spoke
its own language and governed itself independently.
 By the time the Iroquois people migrated into the woodlands of north east
America this area was already inhabited by other tribes such as the Cherokee and
Tuscarora who were driven into the southern plains and others were pushed to the
north and settled around Lake Ontario.
 The Iroquois are famously known as “The Iroquois League of Nations” or
“People of the Long Houses”. They formed a strong political union known as the
Iroquois league of nations which included the tribes of Cayuga, Mohawk,
Oneida, Onondaga and Seneca and were later joined by the Tuscarora in the 18 th
century to make the league to be comprised of six tribes.

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 Initially union among the Iroquois had remained elusive as the different tribes
constantly fought each other. This was until 1570 when Hiawatha, a leading
Iroquois leader established a loose confederacy that united the Iroquois people
into a Confederacy or League of nations through which a representative
government was established. Every tribe sent representatives to this government.
 This system of government was much admired by the Europeans who later on
borrowed most of its principles in the establishment of the federation of the 13
states.
 As a united political entity, the Iroquois weld significant power throughout the
colonial era and the European settlers regularly consulted Iroquois leaders before
making any major political decision affecting the USA.
 Another important feature of Iroquois society was in terms of their social and
cultural organization. The Iroquois generally lived-in large settlements made up
of long houses of up to 100 feet shared by different families. The Iroquois mainly
survived on corn growing and hunting and gathering. Because men spent most of
their time hunting during the winter, while the women stayed at home tending to
the fields, women increasingly played a central role in social organization.
Women were recognised as family and clan heads among the Iroquois and
because of this maternal relation among the Iroquois were more important than
paternal roles. Men were usually married into Iroquois households and did not
have an important role in decision making in the households.

4. The Plains and Central Plateau Indians

 These are the Native Americans who settled in the central plains west of the
Mississippi river which were covered with rich grasslands and wildlife. To the
south West the region is covered by the Navada desert. This region covered the
areas south of the Great lakes and stretched into the central plains of Kansas into
the south west regions of Arizona, Nevada desert and Oklahoma.
 The people who lived here mainly led a sedentary life in villages and mainly grew
corn, squash and beans and developed a fashionable lifestyle made up of
elaborately decorated pottery.
 However, the hunting of deer, buffalo and wild elephants was the main source of
livelihood.
 Most of the inhabitants of the plains led a nomadic life and constantly moved
following wildlife. Given the open nature of the terrain there was constant
migration into the region which inevitably led to conflict between the different
tribes.
 Overtime the original hunters and gatherers of the plains such as the Cherokee
were joined by other invaders from the north such as the Cheyenne, Arapaho, the
Teton, the Idaho, Montana and the Dakota who mainly invaded from the north.
 The last wave of migration into the central plains was going on as late as the
1700s. The newcomers were mainly agriculturalists who grew corn. These
newcomers settled in the regions of Utah, New Mexico and Arizona. These
newcomers were mainly known as the corn growers.

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 A unique feature of these newcomers was the building of dwelling structures
known as Pueblos. These were multi storeyed buildings with elaborate terraces
that served as viewpoints in case of invasion.
 The pueblo people evolved very elaborate cultures and practiced intensive
agriculture that involved the growing of corn, cotton and tobacco and even
practiced irrigation to increase food production.
 The last wave of the invaders into the central plains were The Apaches and
Navajos Indians.
 Mainly originating from the north, they began to invade the central plains from
around 1200s AD. These people were generally considered strangers and that is
how they were known as the “strangers” or apaches by other native Indians. They
were very hostile and warlike and destroyed most of the pueblo settlements which
were abandoned. These newcomers also adopted into the culture of the people
they encountered. They learned how to farm and irrigate dry lands and eventually
they began to lead a more settled life.
 The Apaches in particular were expert fighters and that is why when they came
into contact with the Spanish by the 15th century, they offered the most formidable
resistance.

5. California and the Northwest coast

 The region of California was a well populated mountainous area with a population
approximated at around 300,000 by the time of the Spanish conquest. Societies
here were diverse. Its estimated 100 different tribes and groups spoke more than
200 dialects. (These languages derived from the Penutian (the Maidu, Miwok and
Yokuts), the Hokan (the Chumash, Pomo, Salinas and Shasta), the Uto-Aztecan
(the Tubabulabal, Serrano and Kinatemuk; also, many of the “Mission Indians”
who had been driven out of the Southwest by Spanish colonization spoke Uto-
Aztecan dialects) and Athapaskan (the Hupa, among others). In fact, as one
scholar has pointed out, California’s linguistic landscape was more complex than
that of Europe.
 Despite this great diversity, many native Californians lived very similar lives.
They did not practice much agriculture. Instead, they organized themselves into
small, family-based bands of hunter-gatherers known as tribelets. Inter-tribelet
relationships, based on well-established systems of trade and common rights,
were generally peaceful.
 Spanish explorers infiltrated the California region in the middle of the 16th
century. In 1769, the cleric Junipero Serra established a mission at San Diego,
inaugurating a particularly brutal period in which forced labor, disease and
assimilation nearly exterminated the culture area’s native population.
 The Northwest Coast culture area, along the Pacific coast from British Columbia
to the top of Northern California, has a mild climate and an abundance of natural
resources. In particular, the ocean and the region’s rivers provided almost
everything its people needed—salmon, especially, but also whales, sea otters,
seals and fish and shellfish of all kinds. As a result, unlike many other hunter-
gatherers who struggled to eke out a living and were forced to follow animal
herds from place to place, the Indians of the Pacific Northwest were secure

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 enough to build permanent villages that housed hundreds of people apiece. Those
villages operated according to a rigidly stratified social structure, more
sophisticated than any outside of Mexico and Central America. A person’s status
was determined by his closeness to the village’s chief and reinforced by the
number of possessions—blankets, shells and skins, canoes and even slaves—he
had at his disposal. (Goods like these played an important role in the potlatch, an
elaborate gift-giving ceremony designed to affirm these class divisions.)
 Prominent groups in the region included the Athapaskan Haida and Tlingit; the
Penutian Chinook, Tsimshian and Coos; the Wakashan Kwakiutl and Nuu-chah-
nulth (Nootka); and the Salishan Coast Salish.

Conclusions
Q. Discuss the impact of European settlement on indigenous societies of North America.

TOPIC 3: EUROPE AND THE MAKING OF AMERICA (1500-1700)

Questions and Key Issues
 What factors motivated European imperial expansion into the Americas from the
15th century onwards?
 Which were the major European powers that acquired territory in the New World?
 What factors enabled the Europeans to easily conquer the new World?
 What were the effects of European conquest of the new world, most specifically
on the Native Americans?

Introduction:
 The European invasion of North America had first briefly taken place around 900-
1000 AD when the Vikings a northern European people invaded America through
the North Sea, Greenland and Newfoundland but they were ejected by the native
people. The second invasion from the 15th century was however more successful.
 European imperial expansion from the 15th century was motivated by various
factors that included:
1. The desire for economic gain. European nations were in the midst of major
economic transformation due to the growth of mercantilism and modern
capitalism. European states were seeking for raw materials and other commodities
which were in high demand in Europe. Traditionally, Europe had relied on China,
India and other oriental societies for most of these raw materials (such as spices,
silk, gold, silver etc) but with the crisis of the 14th century which saw the spread of
the Bubonic Plague and the rise of Islam which made the Mediterranean trade
routes insecure, it became inevitable to seek trading route to the east. It was in an
attempt to seek alternative routes to the east that America was discovered and
subsequently grew important as a frontier of new settlements as well as a source
of most of the raw materials needed in Europe.
2. The desire to spread Christianity and acquire new knowledge. The spread of the
ideas of Renaissance led to a reawakening of European society and there was now
a desire to learn the culture of other societies.

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 3. Strategic and political interests: European powers were also vying among
themselves for supremacy in Europe and therefore the acquisition of colonies was
regarded as one way through which the European powers could be able to assert
themselves in Europe and other parts of the world.
 The process of European expansion into the Americas began with successful
Portuguese voyages by the late 1400s and they were soon followed by the
Spanish, Dutch, English and French by the end of the 17th century.

Portuguese Expansion to the Americas.

 The Portuguese were the first western European nation to show interest in the
New World when Portuguese sailors successfully sailed around Africa through
the Cape of Good Hope in the 1490s.
 However, the Portuguese eventually gained a much stronger foothold in the
Indian Ocean (India, China etc) and not in the Americas apart from Brazil. The
Portuguese sailor by the name of Amerigo Vespucci was instrumental in the
establishment of the colony of Brazil. The America continent was named after
him.

The Spanish Expansion

 Unlike the Portuguese who mainly concentrated their efforts in the Indian Ocean,
the Spanish were more focused on the Americas.
 The Spanish expulsion of the Moslems from the lands in the 1200s (the
reconquista) was followed by rapid overseas expansion.
 Spanish expansion to the Americas began with the successful voyage by
Christopher Columbus who landed in the Caribbean island of Cuba in 1492 and
this opened up further acquisitions in Mexico, Florida and later the South
American colonies of Peru, Bolivia, and Ecuador. The Spanish named Mexico
New Spain while the territories to the south were known as Spanish South
America.
 In the wake of Columbus’ landing in the Americas several explorers and
conquistadors on hire by the Spanish monarchy trooped into the region, majority
motivated by the legendry wealth of gold, silver and other resources which they
wanted to exploit.
 Explorers who came after Columbus included Vasco Nunez Balboa, Fernand
Magellan and Ponce de Leone. These explorations led to the crossover from the
Atlantic into the Pacific Ocean through Panama by Magellan who became the first
European traveller to travel around the globe when he travelled further westwards
eventually landing in the Philippines and eventually into India and back into
Europe.
 Ponce de Leone was able to land in Florida and was soon followed by Hernando
de Soto who landed at Tampa bay and travelled across much of what is present-
day south-eastern USA. However, the local Indian tribesmen were generally
hostile to these newcomers and they expelled them.
 However, native Indian resistance could not keep the Spanish out of the
Americas. By employing brutality and the tactics of divide and rule the Spanish

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 were able to take over much of the Americas as demonstrated in the case of
Mexico and Peru in the south.

Spanish conquest of Mexico and Peru

 The Spanish conquest of Mexico began in 1519 when Hernando Cortes, a Spanish
explorer, set out from Cuba into Mexico in search of the fabulous wealth of the
Aztec civilization.
 By aligning himself with local Indians whom he befriended with the use of gifts,
Hernando Cortes was able to get the friendship of Montezuma or Moctezuma, the
leader of the Aztec Empire who welcomed him to his seat of power Tenochtitlan
(modern day Mexico City).
 However, the friendship did not last long and Cortes was expelled. But Cortes
made a comeback the following year with a more determined expedition which
saw the capture of Montezuma and his execution. Cortes now became the new
Viceroy of the newly acquired colony of Mexico which was named New Spain.
 The Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire in modern day Peru followed the same
pattern as in Mexico. The Inca people were conquered when Francesco Pizarro
who had followed Balboa in his crossover into the Pacific Ocean in 1513. Sailing
southwards, he was able to arrive among the Inca people who at the time, their
leader known as Atahualpa, was facing a major rebellion.
 Taking sides with the rebels Pizarro was able to capture the local king and had
him executed. However, despite the establishment of Spanish rule by 1535, Inca
resistance continued under the leadership of Tupac Amaru who was executed in
1575 thus marking the end of any major resistance to Spanish rule not only in
Peru but also the rest of Spanish Americas.

Why Spanish Conquest succeeded

 The Spanish conquest of the Americas was quite spectacular given the fact that a
band of few Spanish sailors numbering not more than 10,000 men were able to
conquer a local population numbering more than 5 million people. By the time
1500s the Spanish were able to build over 200 cities and townships over their
newly conquered lands and were able to ship annually to Europe more than 500
thousand pounds of gold, silver and other highly valued commodities.
 It is estimated that by 1575, Spanish population in the Americas was around
160,000 people ruling over millions of indigenous people. Why were the Spanish
able to achieve such a feat? There are several factors that explain this:
 The Spanish conquistadors and explorers had the unequalled support of their
government back in Spain. Most of these individuals were appointed Viceroys or
governors for the newly conquered lands.
 The Spanish conquerors, mostly men, readily intermarried with the local Indians
and introduced European customs and Spanish language and this enhanced the
acceptance of the Spanish among the local people. The Spanish unions with the
local people, both Indians and later African slaves produced a mixed race known
as the Mestizos who readily accepted Spanish culture.
 The Spanish also introduced Christianity which gained a lot of followers locally.
The Spanish generally condemned traditional practices such as human sacrifices

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 and instead encouraged the local people to accept Christianity and with this many
local people came to accept western culture.
 The Spanish had superior technology such as guns, horses and ships which made
the local people to submit without a lot of resistance.
 The Spanish also introduced many unfamiliar diseases such as small pox which
killed many of the local people leading to depopulation.
 The Spanish also introduced a new system of crop production known as
encomienda or crop plantations. Under this system the local people were forced to
provide cheap labor to the Spanish who enriched themselves. With the revenues
obtained from the plantations it was possible to raise revenue to run the affairs of
the colony.

The Expansion of England to the Americas

 Unlike the Spanish and the Portuguese, the English were slow to establish
colonies in the new World. For much of the 1500s English merchants relied on
the goodwill of Spanish authorities to trade in the New World. Throughout this
period England maintained good relations with Spain so as to carry on trading
activities in the New World.
 However, the assumption to power of Queen Elizabeth I in 1558 changed the
relations between the British and Spanish. Queen Elizabeth I unlike her
predecessors had imperialist ambitions which were antagonistic to the Spanish
interests in the new World. This led to King Philip II the Spanish monarchy to
declare war on England in 1588 and quite unexpectedly Spain suffered a major
defeat.
 The relations between the two countries were also strained because England was
largely protestant while Spain was catholic and England had decided to support
the Dutch, then a colony of Spain, in her struggle for freedom from Spanish rule.
 With the defeat of Spain and the escalating bad relations between the two
countries, English merchants now took to directly competing with Spanish
merchants in the Americas for control of trade. England also wanted to establish
her own colonies in the Americas.
 The English initial attempts to establish colonies in the Americas began with an
unsuccessful voyage into Newfoundland in 1583. Two years later in 1585, the
English made another expedition under the command of Walter Raleigh which
landed in the Carolina’s Roanoke Island off the coast of Virginia. However, the
English settlement here was short lived.
 In 1604, England finally signed a peace treaty with Spain and this opened up
English expansion in the New world and by the end of the 17 th century, England
had emerged as the most powerful European state in the colonies. After the
defeat of France during the Seven years War (1756-1763) in which France lost
most of her possessions in North America and Asia to the English, England now
emerged as the undisputed colonial power for the rest of the period up to the 19 th
century. England acquired most of the American colonies from other European
powers and went to have the most important influence on the evolution of the
USA history.

12
Factors that contributed to the rapid expansion of English colonies in the Americas:
 The growing population in England during the 1600s caused a lot strain on
resources such as land and this compelled people to migrate in search of new
opportunities. Between 1500 to 1600, the population of England increased from 3
million to approximately 5 million people and this led to an acute land shortage.
Most of the landowners began to enclose their farms so as to maximise production
and majority of the people now became landless and most of these people drifted
to towns such as London, Bristol while others opted to migrate to the new
colonies.
 The system of landownership in England known as primogeniture led inequalities
in inheritance forcing many people to migrate to the colonies in search of land and
other opportunities. Under the system of primogeniture, land was usually
inherited by the first-born son and the rest of the siblings had to look for other
ways to earn a living and most opted to start businesses or migrate to new lands.
 Establishment of peaceful relations between England and Spain in 1604 also
encouraged England to expand overseas.
 Religious and political conflict in England. As from 1550s to 1650s England
faced a major civil war that took both religious and political dimensions. The
civil war began when the monarchy which was Anglican declared war on the
puritans who wanted to separate from the Anglican Church. King Charles
wanted to get the support of parliament to pass new taxes so as to raise revenue to
wage war against the Puritans but the Parliamentarians led by Oliver Cromwell
decided to support the Puritans instead. In 1649, King Charles was executed
having been accused of treason by the Parliamentarians and it was not until 1688
that peace was finally restore in England. During this period many of the puritans
migrated to the colonies because of the persecution that they faced back home in
England.
 England also expanded into the colonies in search of new wealth and the desire to
control trade. The English merchants formed trading companies that played a
crucial role in overseas expansion.
 English defeat of France during the Seven Years War also enabled the English to
expand rapidly in the colonies.
 Support of imperial expansion by the monarchies and especially Queen Elizabeth
I and later James I also encouraged English expansion
 Finally, the advance of technology especially in ship building and navigation
enabled the English to take a leading role in overseas expansion.

The English Colonies in North America

 The British colonies in America can be divided into two categories; the plantation
colonies that were mainly established for the purpose of agricultural activities and
the protestant colonies that were mainly established to settle refugees running
away from religious persecution back in Britain and other parts of Europe.
 By the time of independence in 1776 there were 13 English colonies in North
America: These included Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New
Hampshire, New York, Delaware, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Maryland,
North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia.

13
The Plantation Colonies/the Southern Colonies
1. The colony of Virginia
 In 1606, two years after the peace with Spain, The Virginia Joint Stock Company
was founded in London and was awarded a charter by King James I of England
(successor to Queen Elizabeth I) to find a settlement in the New world.
 The company was mainly founded so as to tap the rich resources such as gold that
were said to be in plenty in the New World. The company only intended to make
profits for a short while and return back to England, but eventually this did not
prove to be the case.
 In 1607, the company set up its base in Jamestown (named after King James I)
which was located on the estuary of the James River. The initial years of this
settlement proved to be very difficult for the settlers due to diseases and
starvation. The local native Indians were also a constant menace to the settlers
many of whom wanted to go back to England.
 However, with time the settlers were able to progress their settlements into the
hinterland of the region and the establishment of tobacco growing helped the
Virginia colony from collapse.
 The establishment of tobacco plantations relied heavily on indentured labor and
African slaves. With time the indentured labourers many of whom were fellow
Europeans proved unreliable and attention was turned to the African slaves who
were cheap and could work for many hours in difficult conditions.
 By the 1650s the population of black slaves had increased in Virginia and they
now made-up 14 percent of the population of the colony.

2. Maryland
 Maryland was the second plantation to be established by the English in North
America. The colony was founded in 1634 by Lord Baltimore who was from a
prominent English catholic family.
 Lord Baltimore had hoped to establish a colony for the Catholics who were facing
pressure from the Protestants in England.
 The first settlement was at St Mary’s on the Chesapeake Bay area.
 Maryland just like Virginia prospered in tobacco growing and was mainly settled
by rich aristocratic families from England.
 Unlike other more puritanical colonies that followed later such as Massachusetts,
Maryland practices greater religious toleration.

3. The Carolinas
 The two colonies of North and South Carolina were founded in 1670 after the
civil war in England. North Carolina specialised in cotton production while South
Carolina specialised in rice production.
 During the civil war England had experienced a major economic decline. Peace
was finally restored in England in 1660 and Charles II, the son of King Charles I
who was executed during the civil war, now assumed power.

14
  With the return of peace, the two colonies of Carolina were founded so as to
supplement earnings from such colonies as Barbados which specialised in sugar
cane production.
 North Carolina mainly attracted low income earning settlers while South Carolina
attracted the upper classes. Charleston in South Carolina became the busiest sea
port in the south and the colony mainly relied on African slaves who worked in
the rice fields. African slaves most of whom originated from West Africa had a
lot of experience in the rice cultivation and there were therefore well suited to the
conditions in South Carolina.
 The Carolinas remained under the threat of the Spanish who had established
themselves in Florida and the Indian raiders.

4. Georgia
 Georgia was the last of the plantation colonies that was established in 1733.
 Georgia was mainly founded as a buffer zone to check the Spanish expansion
from the Florida in the south and the French from Louisiana.
 Georgia was important as it protected the Carolinas and other northern colonies
from attack from the south. However, with time Georgia became prosperous for
the production of silk, fur and wine. Georgia was also important in the
establishment of large-scale cattle and sheep ranches that produced beef and other
products for export.
 Georgia mainly attracted poor people from England and encouraged religious
tolerance as the Catholics and Protestants mixed freely. John Wesley, the founder
of the Methodist church lived in Georgia for a long time.
 Georgia also had a mixed population that included the German Lutherans, Scots,
the Catholics etc.

The Protestant Colonies/Northern colonies/ The New England Colonies

 The growth of the protestant reformation was also another important reason for
the establishment of colonies in the new world.
 The emergence of the Puritans in England had contributed to the growth of
radicalism within the church in England. The puritans wanted the total
purification of Christianity in England. The extreme puritans, known as the
Separatists increasingly became a threat to English rulers. Both King James I and
Charles I did not support the Puritans and they engaged in campaigns to eradicate
them.
 Most of the puritans running away from persecution from English rulers now set
out as pilgrims to the new world and America was their favourite destination.

1. Plymouth colony
 The first colony to be established by the pilgrims was the Plymouth colony in
1620. A group of 100 pilgrims set sail from England on a ship known as the
Mayflower. Originally, the pilgrims had intended to land in Virginia but
apparently their ship drifted northwards and eventually landed on the Plymouth
River and established their first settlement at Plymouth Bay.

15
  However, the Plymouth colony faced many problems such as lack of food and
initial Indian resistance. Eventually some native Indians accepted them and were
able to settle down. However, the colony was not economically viable compared
to other colonies in the south such as Virginia and the Carolinas.

2. The Massachusetts Bay Colonies : 4 colonies

 Following the English settlement of Plymouth colony, the Massachusetts Bay area
became the next major canter of settlement by the Puritan separatists running
away from England. This became the case after King Charles I declared a
relentless campaign against the Puritans.
 In 1629, a group of separatist puritans acquired a charter to form the
Massachusetts Bay Company. They proposed settlement of the Massachusetts
area with Boston being the seat of the settlement.
 The 1930s became the period of the “Great Migration” by many of the puritans
most of whom settled in Massachusetts.
 The Massachusetts Bay colonies were later on known as the New England
Colonies. Puritanism became the ideology that provided the identity of the settlers
in this region. Most of them were generally very intolerant to the more moderate
sects such as the Quakers who were forced to settle in the neighbouring Rhode
Island of the Atlantic coast.
 From the Massachusetts Bay area, other settlements were also opened into the
hinterland of the region as from 1635. These included such areas as the
Connecticut River Valley where the Connecticut settlement was established.
Others included New Hampshire and Maine.
 In 1643 four major colonies of the Massachusetts Bay area that included
Massachusetts colony, Plymouth, Maine and Connecticut formed the New
England Confederation. This confederation later became the nucleus for the
growth of the 13 states that later grew into the USA.
 The people of New England generally grew to detest control from England and
mobilised other colonies to support their course.
 Later on, other states such as New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania joined the
Confederation by the 1660s.

The Dutch Colonies in North America

 The Dutch colonies in America were mainly concentrated in the Hudson Bay
area (New York) and Delaware. These were later taken over by the English
colonies as they expanded into the USA.
 In 1648, the Dutch gained their independence from Spain and this marked the
start of a rapid expansion into the Atlantic world. The Dutch were experienced in
navigation as well as in commerce and they took advantage of this to expand
rapidly into the new world.
 Dutch expansion into the Atlantic was mainly facilitated by the establishment of
two major trading companies based in Amsterdam that was the Dutch commercial
capital. These companies were the Dutch East Indies Company and the Dutch
West Indies Company.

16
  These companies set their base in Delaware Bay and New Netherlands that
included the New York City. New York was known as New Amsterdam by the
Dutch. The Dutch also purchased the island of Manhattan which they bought
from the native Indians as only 24 US dollars.
 The Dutch acquisition of the area was facilitated by an English explorer by the
name of Henry Hudson, who was hired by the companies to explore the area.
 The Dutch were generally moderate and tolerant and welcomed diverse people
such as the Swedes, the Quakers into the area.

French Colonies in America

 France just like England lagged behind Spain and Portugal in the race to acquire
colonies in the new world. However, France was active in exploring the new
world long before they attempted to acquire any colonies.
 The French had attempted to open up trading links with the Spanish and the
Portuguese in Americas such as Brazil but this was not well received by the
imperial powers already established here.
 The French had also explored the east coast of the USA including Canada as early
as the 1520s but they never made any formal claims for colonies here.
 The slow progress of French colonial expansion was mainly due to political,
economic and religious conflict back home during the 1500s which had
degenerated into a civil war.
 At the end of the civil war France embarked on a period of economic revival
which began from the time of King Henry IV (1589-1610). In 1603, the French
founded a trading company in the East Indies. They also established a small
settlement in Nova Scotia (1607) and Quebec (1608).
 The French presence in the new world however remained minimal. For example,
in Quebec in the 1700s, a whole century after its establishment only had 60,000
French settlers. This was unlike the British who rapidly populated their colonies.
 However, what helped the French to survive in their colonies despite their few
numbers was their ability to make friends and blend with the indigenous people
especially the native Indians. This was unlike the Spanish and the English.
 French colonies expanded rapidly during the time of King Louis XIV. In 1673,
the French explored the areas of the Mississippi River Valley and acquired this
region which they named Louisiana in honour of Louis XIV.
 French colonies were known as New France. However, most of these colonies due
to their small population and poor economic performance were constantly
threatened by encroachment by other powers such as the British and Spanish,
 Rivalry over the North American colonies eventually resulted in the Seven Years
War (1756-1763) and at the end of this conflict France lost most of her colonies
such as Canada to the British.
 In 1812, the French sold Louisiana, the only remaining colony in America to the
USA and thus the French presence in the colonies shrunk even further.

17
TOPIC 4: COLONIAL AMERICAN SOCIETY: SLAVERY, AGRICULTURE
AND MERCANTILISM (1600-1776)
Key Questions and Issues
 Describe the emerging society in America during the colonial period.
 What were the major social and economic activities that characterised the
American society after the establishment of the colonies?

Introduction
 American colonies during the colonial period remained largely agrarian with
agricultural production emerging as the mainstay of the colonies. The colonies
also turned more and more to slave labor to work on the plantations. Among the
settlers, social classes were beginning to take shape with the land-owning settlers
becoming more influential in the affairs of the colonies. The colonies also largely
remained protestant and major progresses were made in the development of
education and other social sectors. In general, life in the American colonies before
the revolution of the 1770s can be divided into two major stages:
 Period between 1607-1700: Period of initial migration and settlement.
 1700-1776: Development of the colonies and emergence of a stratified society.

Period between 1607-1700:

 This period was characterised by the establishment of the colonies and the
plantations. The evolution of society in the colonies took two distinctive patterns
with the plantation and New England colonies each taking a unique character.

Life in the Plantation Colonies

 Life in the plantation colonies in the south such as Virginia, Maryland, the
Carolinas and Georgia mainly revolved around agricultural production and slave
labor.
 However, life in the plantations faced many challenges right from the start. For
example, in the Chesapeake Bay area in Maryland, the climatic conditions were
very unhealthy as such diseases as malaria, dysentery and typhoid took a heavy
toll on the settlers. Many of the early settlers born in Maryland and Virginia never
lived for more than two decades.
 Population growth was generally very slow in most of the plantation colonies.
Population was low due to the gender disparities in the settlements. Most of the
settlers in Virginia and other plantation were mainly males and therefore
procreation was low. This was unlike in the New England colonies were whole
family units tended to migrate here unlike in Virginia and other southern colonies.
By the start of the 1700s, Virginia which was the oldest and largest plantation
colony had a population of 59,000 people compared to Massachusetts which was
smaller and more recent but with a population of nearly 35,000 people.
 In both Maryland and Virginia tobacco growing was the main stay of the
economy although corn was also important with time.
 Initially the plantations mainly relied on indentured labor from Europe. These
were mainly poor yeomen farmers and indebted people who in most cases worked

18
 to earn their freedom. Under the terms of freedom, the indentured labourers in
Chesapeake were awarded 50 acres of land by their masters.
 By 1700 Chesapeake planters had brought about 100,000 indentured servants
from Europe. These “white slaves” represented more than three quarters of all
European immigrants to Virginia and Maryland in the 1700s.
 However, indentured labor was not very reliable as most of the labourers were
mainly motivated by the hopes of acquiring their own land. With time land
became more and scarcer with population increase and the relations between the
indentured labourers and the planters worsened.
 Even with emancipation many of the indentured labours remained a social
problem and many of them drifted into crime and rebellion against the planters.
The best example was Nathaniel Bacon a former indentured labourer who began a
rebellion against the planters in the Chesapeake area. The chaos later spread to
Jamestown in Virginia but was later brought under control.
 With growing problems with indentured labor, African slaves became an obvious
solution to the labor crisis facing the planters. Though initially very expensive, the
I slaves were preferred in the plantations.
 By 1700 there were about 400,000 African slaves in America and majority were
concentrated in the southern plantation colonies. But the largest proportions were
found in Latin America and the Portuguese and Spanish colonies in South
America.
 In the plantations in the South, African slaves accounted for nearly half of the
population of some colonies such as Virginia.
 The opening up of the two plantation colonies of the Carolinas in the 1670s
created more demand for I slaves. The Carolinas specialised in the production of
cotton, rice and indigo which were labor intensive and I slaves could fit very well
within the structure of these colonies.
 Most of the slaves were obtained from the Guinea coast of West Africa and were
responsible for the introduction of rice growing in South Carolina.
 By 1750 Charleston in South Carolina had become the largest slave market in
North America and by this period the black population in the Carolinas had
outnumbered the whites by two to one. However, most of the slaves actually died
during the middle passage, horrendous the journey from West Africa to the new
world.
 Initially the slaves were not seen as a threat to the dominant white society but as
their numbers increased they increasingly raised concern among the planters who
feared rebellions. To forestall possibilities of rebellion most of the planters
resorted to extreme forms of mistreatment so as to gain firm control over the
slaves.
 The mistreatment of slaves could lead to attempts to escape the plantations or
rebellions. In New York there was a major slave revolt in 1712 and another one
took place in South Carolina in 1739.
 The suppression of slave revolts was taken urgently as it was feared that the
slaves would escape to the Spanish colonies in the south such as Florida and the
French territory in Louisiana.

19
  The most famous of the slave revolts was one led by Nat Turner in Virginia in
1831 and James Brown in 1859 on the eve of the Civil war.
 Among the white planters, social differentiation was also beginning to manifest
itself. Among the most important social groups that emerged included:

(a) The Rich land owning planters.

 These occupied the top of the social ladder. They owned large tracts of land
which they planted tobacco, cotton, rice and other crops and mostly relied on I
slaves. On average most plantations had more than 300 slaves.
 The planters emerged as powerful elements in the social and economic life of the
colonies. Leading families such as that of Washington and the Lees dominated the
legislature of such states as Virginia.
 These planters were not any different from the English upper classes who lived in
manors and controlled large tracts of land.
 The rich landowners in the colonies remained a closed society that interacted
within itself. They regularly held town meetings and maintained their social status
through intermarriages and setting up business partnerships etc.

(b) The Small scale farmers

 These were the largest social group in terms of numbers but they were not the
most powerful. They owned small plots of land and one or two slaves.

(c) The Landless Indentured Whites and urban dwellers

 These included those who had served for their debts and regained their freedom.
Then there were those serving so as to regain their freedom. This group of whites
reduced in numbers as more and more black slaves were imported into the
colonies.

(d) The Middle Class:

 These included the upcoming professionals mainly resident in the urban areas.
They included professionals such as doctors, surveyors, lawyers, financiers whose
services were increasingly needed as the economy expanded in the colonies.

Life in the New England Colonies

 Unlike the colonies in the south such as the Chesapeake area, the New England
colonies such as Massachusetts had a relatively good climate. Here water was
cleaner and the cooler temperatures reduced the spread of killer microbes.
 New England colonists unlike their counterparts in the south seemed to settle as
families. This contributed to the rapid growth of population unlike in Virginia and
Chesapeake where most of the original immigrants came in as individuals usually
males. Here it became difficult to get mates.
 In general population boomed in the New England colonies and the average
lifespan could be as much as 70 years. In fact, life expectancy in the colonies was
much higher than in England although many women died in childbirth.
 Emerging townships were mainly composed of compact communities who in
most cases shared a common origin.

20
  Religion played an important role in determining the patterns of settlement. The
Puritans in Massachusetts ran their own towns, churches and governments. They
held regular town meetings to discuss their welfare and over time came to
dominate the social and political life of the colonies.
 The colonists (mainly the Puritans) established colleges of learning and with time
these became important centres of learning in the colonies. These include:

Year College Founder Location

1636 Harvard College Congregationists Massachusetts
1693 William and Mary college Anglican Virginia
1701 Yale College Congregationists Connecticut
1746 Princeton College Presbyterian New Jersey
1751 Pennsylvania College Non secterian PA
1752 Columbia Anglican New Jersey
1766 Rutgers Dutch Reformed New Jersey

 Puritan congregationists became the most dominant religious group in the New
England colonies. They were very protective of their faith and took great interest
in determining who came to settle in the colonies. Most immigrants who were non
puritan or non protestant were not encouraged to settle in the colonies. The
puritans wanted a total break away from England which was mainly Anglican and
catholic.
 Economically, the New England colonies were not as rich as the plantation
colonies such as Virginia and Maryland. Hence the focus in the New England
colonies was not in agriculture but trading activities as well as shipbuilding and
cod fishing. The area of Boston was central in the development of commerce and
industry in the area.
 With time most of the settlers in the New England colonies became some of the
wealthiest in the colonies. Most were merchants and industrialists.

The Period between 1700-1775

 The period between 1700 and the start of the revolution in 1775 was generally
characterised by the rapid transformation of the colonies as they sought to
establish their own unique identity from England. The colonies were able to
establish their own state governments and wrote their own laws. They also wanted
to expand the economy and social life of the colonies.
 However, during this period, the colonies also grew increasingly restless over
England’s continued control of the affairs of the colonies. England wanted to
have a say in the affairs of the colonies and even went ahead to impose taxes and
other forms of control over the colonies. These developments eventually
culminated in the war of independence in which the colonies were able to attain
their independence from English rule.
 The period between 1700 to 1775 was characterised by rapid population growth in
the colonies; increased economic activities especially in agriculture and trade;

21
 emergence of new social classes; growth of Protestantism; rapid urbanization and
industry; growth of education etc.
 Population growth: This period is known as the era of the Great migration to the
colonies. By 1775 the population of the colonies had grown tremendously.
Actually, there was a population boom triggered by a new massive exodus from
Europe to the colonies due to the increase of political turmoil in Europe as well
the continued economic crisis. Many people migrated from Ireland and Scotland
into the colonies to avoid English rule and well as to seek better economic
opportunities.
 The population in the colonies was generally youthful and tended to double every
25 years. By 1775, the most populous colonies were Virginia, Massachusetts,
Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Maryland in that order.
 The population especially in the so called 13 original colonies grew very mixed.
A part from the original settlers’ other immigrants included, the Scots, Irish, I
slaves, Germans (most of whom settled in Pennsylvania).
 The following table provides a summary of the population in the colonies by
1790:

Ethnic Group Number Percentage

English/Welsh 2,605,699 66.7
Scots 221,562 5.6
German 176,407 4.5
Dutch 78,959 2.0
Irish 61,534 1.6
French 17,619 0.4
All other whites 10,664 0.3
Undocumented (slaves) 757,181 19.3
Totals 3,929,625 100%

 The table above indicates that most of the settlers were European with the highest
percentage being the English and Welsh. Africans were also a significant number
and most worked as slaves in the colonies.
 Emerging social structure: most of the settlers generally had a poor background
but with time they were able to transform themselves into a wealthy land-owning
class. This was especially the case for the initial settlers. Hence social climbing
was a common feature of society in the colonies. It was easier to make wealth in
the colonies than back in Europe.
 By 1775 signs of social stratification were becoming apparent with the emergence
of a wealthy land-owning class who mainly relied on indentured labourers from
Europe and later African slaves as a source of cheap labour.
 The professionals such as doctors, land surveyors, lawyers etc were also cutting a
niche for themselves. Their services were in high demand in the colonies.
 The Economy: By 1775 agriculture accounted more than 90% of the resources of
the colonies. Virginia, Maryland, the Carolinas and New York produced the bulk
of commodities such as tobacco, grains especially corn and cotton which were

22
 mainly exported to England. By 1760 New York alone exported more than
100,000 pounds of grain floor.
 Fishing and ship building continued to dominate economic activities in the
regions of New England. Many of the merchants especially from Boston, New
York city and Charleston in South Carolina were mainly involved in the triangular
trade between the American colonies and Latin America, Europe and Africa. This
trade was previously controlled by the Spanish, Dutch and Portuguese but by the
18th century; the English were also playing a big part.
 Most of the commodities exported from the American colonies included cotton,
tobacco and grains; sugar was also exported from the Caribbean to North America
and Europe. Commodities taken to West Africa in exchange of slaves included
wine, liquor and clothes.
 The development of manufacturing and industries was generally discouraged in
the colonies by England as she did not want competition with the colonies.
England wanted the colonies to only produce raw materials for industries in
Europe. Therefore, most of the industries that developed in the colonies were
small scale. This included the manufacture of ram in Rhode island and
Massachusetts; clothes and beaver hats; iron smelting and forging in
Pennsylvania; cotton spinning and weaving industries by women; carpentry and
masonry work; lumbering and timber industries; tar and turpentine industry etc.
 Due to British restrictions through tariffs on exports and imports the colonies
carried out minimal trade within themselves and with other countries. British
legislations such as the Molasses Act of 1733 prevented the colonies from buying
sugar cane and it’s by products from the Caribbean. This led to bad relations with
England and also encouraged smuggling of goods.
 Transport: was poorly developed in the colonies. The major mode of transport
was mainly water transport along the major waterways such as the Hudson River,
Mississippi and Chesapeake Bay area. Land transport was very poor and it was
not until the 19th century with the construction of railroads that transport was
improved. Contact between the colonies was therefore minimal.
 Urbanization: the major urban centres that emerged included such cities as
Richmond in Virginia, Jamestown, Charleston in South Carolina, New York and
Philadelphia. Philadelphia had emerged as the largest colonial city in the colonies
by 1775.
 Religious Denominations: The colonies generally demonstrated greater religious
tolerance compared with Europe. However, Protestantism was the most
dominant especially in the New England colonies. The most dominant religious
denominations in the colonies were the Puritans also known as the
Congregationists; the Anglicans; the Presbyterians and the German Lutherans.
 The following table provides a summary of the major denominations from a
census carried out in 1776:

23
 USA Estimated Religious Census, 1776
Name of Denomination Numbers Chief Location
Congregationists (Puritans) 575,000 New England colonies
Anglicans 500,000 New York
Presbyterians 410,000 Frontier colonies
German Lutherans 200,000 Pennsylvania
Dutch Reformed Church 75,000 N.Y and N.J
Quakers 40,000 P.A, N.J and Delaware
Baptists 25,000 Rhode Island, PA, NJ and Del
Roman Catholics 25,000 Maryland, PA
Methodists 5,000 Scattered
Jews (Judaism) 2,000 NY, Rhode Island
Totals 1,857,000
Total population 2,493,000
% of church members of total pop. 74%

 The table above indicates that European churches represented majority of the
population. Other racial groups such as I slaves were not included in the census.
The other protestant movements that emerged during this period included: the
Mormons, the Salvation Army, The Jehovah Witnesses, The Adventists etc
 The period between 1730 to 1740s is generally known as the period of the Great
Religious Revival in the colonies. These were efforts mainly aimed at countering
the growth of liberal ideas in the churches. By 1775 the protestant movement in
the colonies took a political dimension as it was seen as part of the process of
rejecting British control over the colonies.
 By 1775, Protestantism formed the cornerstone of the growing culture and society
in the American colonies. By embracing Protestantism, the American colonies
wanted to build their own unique identity from Europe.

Revision Questions
Q. Discuss the social and economic transformation of the English North American
colonies up to the independence era in 1776.
Key areas of change included:
 The growth of the plantation economy
 Growth of the African slave trade
 Increased European migration to the colonies
 Growth of Protestantism or protestant culture. The influence of the Puritans and
other congregationists who supported protestant movement.
 Growth of a class society
 Growth of urban centres. This was mainly due to the influx of new immigrants
most of whom preferred to settle in urban areas like Boston than in the
plantations.
 The emergence of a cosmopolitan mixed. This was due to increased influx of new
immigrants from Europe
 Slow growth of industrialization
 Growth of the American identity in the town hall meetings etc

24
TOPIC 5: THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION AND WAR OF
INDEPENDENCE (1776-1783)
Questions/Major issues
 What were the major factors/causes that led to the American war of
independence: 1775-1783?
 Examine the major stages of the American war of independence?
 Analyse the major effects of the war of independence on USA history.
 Why do we regard the war of independence in the USA as a revolution?

The Origins of the War of Independence

 The American Revolutionary War (1775–1783), the American War of
Independence,or simply the Revolutionary War in the United States, was the
armed conflict between the Kingdom of Great Britain and thirteen of its former
North American colonies, which had declared themselves the independent United
States of America.
 Early fighting took place primarily on the North American continent. In 1778
France, eager for revenge after its defeat in the Seven Years’ War, signed an
alliance with the new nation. The conflict then escalated into a world war with
Britain combating France, Spain, and the Netherlands. Contemporaneous fighting
also broke out in India between the British East India Company and the French
allied Kingdom of Mysore.

Causes of the War

 The war was primarily an economic conflict between Britain and her North
American colonies over taxation and trade in general.
 When Britain established her colonies in North America, she tightly controlled
their affairs especially in trade. American colonies were restricted as to whom
they could trade with. Most of the products coming out of the colonies such as
tobacco, cotton, sugar cane, rice, ram etc were in high demand in Britain and the
British government tightly controlled the export of these products.
 In 1650, the British Parliament passed the infamous Navigation Laws so as to
prevent other countries and especially the Dutch from gaining access to the
markets in the colonies.
 Goods destined for the American colonies either from Europe, the Caribbean or
from India first had to pass through England for the collection of custom duties.
 At the same time the American settlers were also restricted in terms of the
manufactured products. They had to import most of their goods such as clothes,
ghee, cigarettes, wines and spirits from Britain at an extra cost.
 England did not also allow the colonies to ran their own banks, insurance
companies and other financial institutions and this had become a major
inconvenience to most traders from the colonies. Therefore, the colonies generally
felt stifled by British controls and it was only a matter of time before these
controls could lead to conflict.

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 Another major even that escalated the economic wars between Britain and the
colonies was the Seven Years War (1756-1763) that took place between Britain
and France over colonies.
 At the end of the war Britain became heavily indebted and subsequently imposed
hefty taxes on the colonies to make up for the financial deficit back in Britain.
 The British Parliament in the aftermath of the war imposed several unpopular tax
regimes on the colonies and this included the Sugar Act of 1764 and the Stamp
Act of 1765.
 Under the Sugar Act the British government introduced duty on foreign sugar
imported from the West Indies to the American colonies.
 The Stamp Act of 1765 required the use of stamped paper or the affixing of
stamps to certify the payment of taxes. More than 50 or so items were affected.
Anybody who broke these acts was to be tried under the English law.
 Resentment over these taxes led to popular campaigns whose major slogans was
“NO TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION” as the colonists felt that
these measures were unconstitutional as the colonies were never consulted before
these legislations were passed.
 Due to civil resistance the Stamp Act was never implemented. However, in 1767
Parliament passed another legislation known as the Townshend Act, which
imposed duties on various British goods exported to the colonies. The Americans
quickly denounced this as illegal as well, since the intent of the act was to raise
revenue and not regulate trade.
 In 1768 violence broke out in Boston and 4000 British troops were sent to occupy
the city. Parliament threatened to try Massachusetts residents for treason in
England. Far from being intimidated, the colonists formed new associations to
boycott British goods, albeit with less effectiveness than previously since the
Townshend imports were so widely used. In March 1770 five colonists in Boston
were killed in the “Boston Massacre”, sparking outrage.

 Further trade conflicts between Britain and the colonies took place in 1773, when
in an effort to rescue the East India Company from financial difficulties, the
British attempted to increase its tea sales by exempting the Company from the tea
tax and appointing certain merchants in America to receive and sell the untaxed
tea. The landing of this tea was resisted in all the colonies and, when the royal
governor of Massachusetts refused to send back the tea ships in Boston, Patriots
destroyed the tea chests.

 The events of the resistance against the importation of the tea to Boston Habor
precipitated what came to be known as “The Boston Tea Parties” when groups
of traders waylaid ships carrying tea into the Boston habor and destroyed most of
them.

 The British government responded by closing the port until the damages were
paid for by the people of Boston and went a head to issue the “Intolerable Acts”
to punish the colonists. The acts completely shut down all activities in the port of
Boston.

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 The colonists now reacted to by organising town councils in 1774. This became
known as the First Continental Congress which strongly condemned British
interference in the affairs of the American colonies. The colonists now decided to
boycott all British goods and drew a list of their rights and grievances against
Britain.
 The First Continental Congress which was held in Philadelphia from
September to October 1774 marked the beginning of the closer union between the
colonies and eventually laid the ground for the war of independence.
 In February 1775, Britain declared war on the American colonies and
subsequently, the colonies as prepared for war against Britain.
 George Washington, a veteran of the Seven Years War was chosen to lead the
resistance against the British forces during the second Continental Congress
which was held in Philadelphia in May 1775.
 Although the colonist’s forces were poorly armed, they were able to withstand the
pressure from the British forces. The American colonies got support from the
French who were keen to revenge against Britain for the defeat during the Seven
Years War. Some sections of the native Indians especially in the areas bordering
Canada supported the British forces. There were also a number of German
mercenaries who supported Britain in the conflict.
 Within the colonies themselves, support for the war was divided. The older
colonies such as the Carolinas, New York, Georgia and Pennsylvania that were
more Anglican generally opposed the war while the colonies of Massachusetts
and others around Boston supported the war. The supporters of the war were
known as the patriots or the Whigs while those opposed were known as the
loyalists or Tories.
 In June 1776, the Continental Congress meeting in Philadelphia appointed a
committee led by Thomas Jefferson, a young lawyer from Virginia to draft the
Declaration of Independence. This was approved by the Congress on the 4 th of
July 1776 and this became the Independence Day.
 Although Britain mobilised its forces both from England and Canada the colonists
were able to make major victories such as the Battle of Saratoga of October 1777
and with the support of France, Britain was forced to surrender in October 1781
and finally signed a peace treaty in Paris in 1783 that formally ended the
hostilities.
 Under the terms of the treaty America was now recognised as an independent
nation and was also able to gain territories in the Mississippi Valley, the Great
lakes region and Florida which was previously under the Spanish.
 The declaration of independence marked the transition of the American colonies
into an independent state based on republicanism, secularism and liberalism
which were directly opposed to the structure of most European states at the time.
 America now began making efforts to establish a union. The union initially made
up of 13 states was formally created with the Congress of 1776. Initially the union
took the structure of a confederacy with each state maintaining semi autonomous
status. Samuel Huntington was appointed the first President of the Confederacy.
Most states did not join this union immediately.

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  In March 1789, the confederacy type of government was replaced with a Federal
system of government in which a national government was created in Washington
in which each state sent representatives and each state also maintained its own
state government.
 Under the new federal system George Washington (1789-1797) was appointed the
new president. Thus, American had now emerged as one of the newest
democracies by the end of the 18th century.

The Major Impacts of the War of Independence on American history.

 The American war of independence marked a major break from English rule and
control. The American society now considered itself free of control by a foreign
monarch based in Europe. They could now make decisions on their governance
without having to seek directions from England which they now considered
backward and less free.
 The war of independence is considered revolutionary because of the manner in
which it completely changed the life of the American colonies. Among the major
changes brought by the Revolution include:
 Social Changes: A new political class emerged into powerful positions such as
farmers, shopkeepers etc. Most of the rich people who supported Britain had fled
during the revolution and this created opportunities for the poor.
 Land reforms: The revolution led to the redistribution of land especially to
benefit the poor.
 Economic impact: Whereas some people gained from the war in terms of finding
markets and outlets of their produce, the war generally led to economic decline
due to loss of trade etc.
 The Revolution and slavery: Several states began the process of emancipation at
the end of the war.
 The revolution led to the expansion of the social sector such as in education, the
spread of Protestantism.
 The revolution also led to the writing of the American constitution which was
based on the principles of republicanism.
 Also, at the end of the revolution, the suffrage was opened up in several states to
allow freedmen and immigrants from Europe the right to vote.
 The end of the revolution also set the stage for the expansion of the USA
westwards beyond the Mississippi river valley and more states now joined the
union.
 The war of independence also led to the decline of English influence in North
America. At the end of the war of independence the English were confined to
Canada and Latin America.
 Finally, the revolution also provided the inspiration for other revolutionary
movements such as the French Revolution of 1789 and Latin American
revolutions of 1810-1820 which led to the independence of several Latin
American colonies from Spanish rule.

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TOPIC 6: THE RISE OF THE AMERICAN REPUBLIC AND
WESTWARD EXPANSION DURING THE 19th CENTURY (1776-
1861)

Questions/Key Issues
 Analyse the major components of the USA constitution. Who were the key
individuals who took a central role in the writing of the constitution?
 What factors led to the emergence of political parties in the USA after the
revolution?
 Examine the process of USA expansion west of the Mississippi to California
during the 19th century.
 Examine the origins and effect of the Monroe Doctrine and policy of Manifest
Destiny in America foreign policy during the 19th century.
 Discuss the key aspects of American economy during the period between the
revolution and the outbreak of the civil war in 1860s.
 Examine the key features of USA domestic and foreign policy during the 19th
century.

Introduction
 With the inauguration of George Washington as the first president of the Federal
Union in April 1789, the focus of the government now was on how to strengthen
the union. Much of the 19th century was characterised by certain major
developments in American history which included:
 Amendments to the constitution to reflect new realities such as the emancipation
of the slaves
 The emergence of political parties
 The rapid expansion of the USA to the west coast
 Increased migration from Europe
 Emancipation of the slaves
 The rapid economic transformation of the USA especially in the area of industry,
transport urbanization and agriculture. This was led by individuals such as
Chrysler and Daimler the investors of the Mercedes automobile, Henry Ford the
industrialist who first created motor vehicle assembly line at Detroit, Andrew
Carnegie, the coal mining magnet based in Pittsburgh, Rockefeller etc
 Emerging disparities in economic development in the country as the northern
parts became more industrialised while the southern parts remained largely
agrarian.
 The emergence of a capitalist working class especially in the urban areas.
 And finally, the emergence of the USA as a strong and assertive state in the
western hemisphere. This was reflected in the Monroe Doctrine and the policy of
Manifest Destiny.
 Hence, by the end of the 19 th century although the USA had to wade through the
difficulties of the civil war, emerging racism and the challenges of reconstruction,
the country by the end of the century emerged as more stable and determined to
make a mark in world affairs. However, it was not until after WW I that the USA

29
 emerged as an assertive state in world affairs as she had all along pursued a
policy of non commitment and isolation in world affairs.

Constitutional Reforms
 The first major constitutional amendment was the writing of the Bill of rights
which was aimed at protecting individual rights and freedoms. The Bill was
incorporated from the bill that followed the declaration of the independence of
the country in 1776.
 The other major constitutional reforms were in the area of slavery and
emancipation. This was reflected in the amendments to the constitution following
the edict of emancipation that followed the end of the civil war in the 1860s.
These amendments were the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments. (find out more on
this)
 In total since its inauguration the American constitution has been amended thirty
three times and most of the amendments were aimed at entrenching the federalist
system of government, voting rights, individual freedoms, making a distinction
between union and state rights and prerogatives etc.

Emergence of Political Parties

 When George Washington took office in 1789, there was no clear-cut divide
within the state into political parties.
 However, within a short time there emerged within the government individuals
who strongly supported the federalist system and its structures of centralisation
such as the Federal reserves bank (equivalent of the Central bank) and there were
others who felt that individual state rights should be protected at all costs.
 Among the supporters of federalism (these came to be known as the federalists)
their chief proponent was Alexander Hamilton who became the first secretary to
the Treasury. Alexander Hamilton wanted to establish the Bank of the USA but
this did not go down well with the anti federalist group. George Washington
himself though clearly non partisan had all along supported a federalist system.
The same can be said of his successor, John Adams.
 The other group that was opposed to federalism was known as the Democratic –
Republicans and was led by Thomas Jefferson who became the first Secretary of
State. Jefferson and James Madison another of his friend from Virginia, were the
ones who had drafted the Bill of Rights. The Bill of Rights strongly supported
republican principles which advocated for greater power and freedom to the
individuals. Jefferson and his group strongly opposed centralization of
government as this would stifle individual freedoms. This group identified more
with the working class and the middle class.
 Thomas Jefferson became a strong opponent of Hamilton’s fiscal policies and
these differences were reflected in the general elections that followed the
retirement of Washington in 1797. The federalist led by John Adams won the
elections and in the Third elections of 1801, Jefferson was able to defeat Adams
and became the Third president of the USA. Jefferson won the elections by
getting support from the anti federalist groups in the country.

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  Therefore by the 19th century, the USA was effectively divided into two major
political camps. Gradually the federalist lost much of their influence and by 1816,
the party had virtually ceased to exist. The Republican-Democrats ruled the
country as a single party between 1816-1825 when it split into the National
Republicans and Democratic Republicans, later the Democrats. The situation has
remained the same ever since.
 Initially, the Democrats represented the Whites and upper middle class whereas
the Republicans represented the workers and minorities. However, by the end of
the 19th century, the Democrats came to represent the minorities and urban
working class while the Republicans party became more popular with the whites
in the rural areas of the country.

USA Foreign Policy and Westwards expansion during the 19th century
 The USA foreign policy towards the close of the 18 th century was mainly shaped
by George Washington’s philosophy of neutrality and isolationism from Europe
in most issues. The USA recognising that she was still a young nation did not
want to get antagonised over European affairs. Therefore, when the French
Revolution broke out in Europe in 1789, many Democratic –Republicans
supported the revolution and later even wanted to support France in its war
against the rest of Europe.
 However, in 1793, George Washington issued his Neutrality Proclamation in
which America remained neutral in the war between Britain and France.
 However, even with America’s policy of neutrality, the country made several
concessions to Britain which did not go well with France. Hence, towards the end
of Washington’s rule and that of John Adams, remained very frosty.
 When Thomas Jefferson came into office in 1801, he sought to establish a more
cordial relationship with France. Napoleon I of France was also more willing to
establish better relations with the USA. France having supported the
revolutionary war in America always got a favoured status from the USA
governments after independence.
 With the establishment of cordial relations with France, the USA went ahead to
purchase the Louisiana Territory from France in 1803. The purchase of Louisiana
more than doubled the size of the USA. Napoleon I of France had wanted to sell
Louisiana because he wanted to raise funds to fight the war against Britain and
other European powers. Napoleon also claimed that he was tired of colonies as he
saw them as expensive. Having sold Louisiana and granted independence to Haiti
(St. Domingo), France now remained with colonies in Canada (Quebec).
 With the purchase of Louisiana, the main disputants with the USA in the south
now remained the Spaniards over Florida and Mexico and Britain who held
territories in Canada.
 Despite America’s policy of neutrality in international affairs, maritime conflict
persisted with both France and Britain. This led to the USA declaration of war
against Britain in 1812. The USA attacked the British in Canada in an effort to
secure the Great lakes region. However, this venture was not quite successful as
the USA failed to get the support of the native Indians in this war.

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 Britain having successfully defeated France in Europe in 1814-1815, now turned
its attention to America where she attacked New York, Washington and New
Orleans. Despite making initial gains the British attack on New Orleans proved to
be a disaster and eventually were forced to sign a peace treaty with the USA in
December 1814 (Treaty of Ghent). With the defeat of Britain, the USA now
embarked on a policy of expansion in international affairs.
 The defeat of Britain was followed by a new wave of nationalism and
expansionism in American history. The Presidency of James Madison (1808-
1816) and James Monroe (1816-1824) saw accelerated American expansion. The
new territories that were incorporated into the expanding American state included
the acquisition of Missouri (1820); Oregon (1818) and Florida which was
acquired from Spain under the Florida Purchase Treaty (1819). The acquisition of
Florida was followed by the pacification of Native Indian tribes living in the area.
 Monroe’s term of office saw the rise of the policy of Monroe Doctrine
(associated with President Monroe) in 1823 in which the USA declared that
European powers should no longer have their way in the affairs of the USA and
much of the Americas. This policy was unveiled in the wake of the end of the
Napoleonic wars in Europe in which it now appeared as though European powers
wanted to re assert themselves in the affairs of the Americas. The USA wanted to
run its own affairs without the interference of the European powers.
 This policy was supported by other Latin American states most of which had
newly acquired their independence from Spain.
 The Monroe Doctrine was further given momentous by the Policy of Manifest
Destiny which characterised American domestic policy during the 1830s to the
1840s. During this period American people developed a renewed self confidence
and determination and it was now believed that the USA was destined to acquire
all territories from the East Coast to the West Coast in North America.
 This policy of expansionism was continued during the presidency of Andrew
Jackson (1828-1836). Andrew Jackson relentlessly pursued the policy of
pacification and elimination of the native Indians from all areas east of the
Mississippi into the southern and central plains and deserts. This was carried out
under the Indian Removal Act (1830) which has gone down to history as a
period of great violence against the native Indians in America. Most of the
territories vacated by the native Indians were now to be taken over by Europeans
who were encouraged to migrate from Europe.
 The completion of the USA west ward expansion took place with the acquisition
of Texas (1848) which was acquired from Mexico after she was defeated by the
USA during the USA-Mexico War of 1848.
 The last frontier of American expansion took place with the acquisition of
California (1848) from Spain after he discovery of gold in the region. The influx
of European gold prospectors compelled the USA to acquire the region.
 By the 1850s the USA had acquired most territories in continental North America.
Several other states were also acquired by the end of the 19 th century. These
included Alaska which was purchased from Russia in 1867; Hawaii, Puetro Rico
(1898) and Guam (1915).

32
  The USA also occupied the Philippines and Cuba but these were later granted
their independence.

TOPIC 7: THE CIVIL WAR AND EMANCIPATION (1861-1865)

Questions/Issues
 What were the key factors that led to the civil war in the USA between 1861-65?
 Describe the major events of the civil war
 Examine the major impacts of the Civil war on American history.

Background to the American Civil War

 The American civil war was a conflict between several southern states which
declared cession from the union in 1860 and the union or federal states which
coalesced around Washington.
 During the American Civil War, the Confederate States of America consisted of
the governments of 11 Southern states that seceded from the Union in 1860-61,
carrying on all the affairs of a separate government and conducting a major war
until defeated in the spring of 1865. Convinced that their way of life, based on
slavery, was irretrievably threatened by the election of President Abraham
Lincoln (November 1860), the seven states of the Deep South (Alabama, Florida,
Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina and Texas) seceded from the
Union during the following months. When the war began with the firing on Fort
Sumter (April 12, 1861), they were joined by four states of the upper South
(Arkansas, North Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia).
 The southern confederacy states appointed their own president who was known
Jefferson Davis from Mississippi and recruited their own army led by Robert E.
Lee, a veteran of the federal army from Virginia.
 The southern forces fought with great determination against the union armies but
by 1864, they had suffered great losses against the union army which had more
resources and manpower. At the end of the war in April 1865(with the surrender
of General Lee), the commander of the Union forces General Ulysses Grant went
on to become the president of the USA (1869-1877) after the assassination of
Abraham Lincoln and the impeachment of Andrew Johnson, the immediate
successor to Lincoln.
 The civil war has gone down in American history as one of the most useless and
conflicts of its history. There is no single conflict in American history that has
cost so much in the loss of human life and destruction of property and other
resources.

Causes of the War

1. The Question of Slavery
 The southern states were opposed to the abolition of slavery by the union
government led by President Lincoln as they saw this as a conspiracy against the
development of the economies of the southern states.

33
 The southern states’ economies were generally agrarian and therefore they heavily
relied on slave labour to produce cotton, tobacco, rice, corn on their plantations.
 The northern states generally carried out an anti slavery campaign. Most of the
states in the north were rapidly industrialising and did not need slave labour to
support their economies.
 The southern states felt that if slavery was abolished their economies will
collapse. On the other hand, the northern states argued that the southern states
should first of all abolish slavery before they could be incorporated into the union.
It was for this reason that there was strong opposition in the north of the
admission of southern or slave states such as Missouri, Texas and other into the
union.
 The question of slavery dominated public debates in the 1840s to the 1860s with
the northern states claiming that the southern states wanted the continuation of
slavery so as to have an upper hand in the control of the newly acquired lands
west of the Mississippi. A new political party known as the Free-Soil party from
the north argued that the southern states will have an upper hand in the acquisition
of the new territories as they were in possession of cheap labour from the slaves.
Therefore, the Free-Soil Party wanted the abolition of slavery so that nobody
would have an advantage in the acquisition of new lands.
 However, the southern states believed that if the anti-slavery campaigns gained
root in Washington, they will not have any say in the federal government.
Therefore, the southern states now campaigned that each state should be allowed
its own autonomy so as to decide its own destiny. But the northern states were
not ready to allow the continuation of slavery as this undermined national unity
and the principles of republicanism.
 Therefore, the question of slavery generally polarised the country and conflict
became inevitable.

2. Ideological Differences in American society

 By the time of the civil war the USA was a highly polarised and divided nation.
Whereas the southern states remained deeply rooted in old European traditions
which were built on Anglicanism and conservatism, most of the people in the
north were more dynamic and outgoing. The northern parts of the country were
more industrialised and urbanised while the southern parts remained rural and
deeply religious.
 These differences had led to the division of the Democratic – Republican Party
into the Southern Democrats and the Republicans. The southern Democrats
generally supported the ideals of conservatism and old Europe and this were
directly opposed to the ideas of society in the north.
3. Mixed royalty to the union especially by the southern states.
4. The emerging disagreement between state and Union rights
5. Controversy over the settlement in the new frontiers west of the Mississippi
valley.
6. Problem of tariffs and taxation
7. The election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860 triggered off the war as the south
mistrusted him.

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Impact of the Civil War
 The civil war amplified the social and economic differences between the southern
and northern states. The southern states came out as generally poorer and a
backward system of production compared to the north.
 The war took a huge toll of human life. Close to 1 million forces died in the war
together with a number twice that much of civilians who died to starvation and
diseases.
 Huge economic losses amounting to more than 15 billion dollars especially by the
south.
 End of slavery
 Disruption of the American social and economic fabric. Broken lives and families
 The beginning of reconstruction and rebuilding of USA economy at the end of the
war.
 Gradually the war became the basis of the emergence of a more united and
cohesive nation
 Massive relocation of population especially at the end of the war from the south to
the north in search of jobs and fear of racism. The problems were amplified
during and after the war.

END OF PART ONE and CAT 1

PART II

TOPIC 8: RECONSTRUCTION AND THE POST CIVIL WAR ERA

(1865-1890s)
Background to Reconstruction
 Reconstruction were programs undertaken by the federal government after the
civil war so as to rebuild the country due to the destruction caused by the war.
 These programs were aimed at restoring order and sanity back into the country
which had become polarised and divided as a result of the conflict. The southern
states had particularly suffered a great deal because the economy was totally
neglected as most people got engaged in the activities.
 A lot of infrastructure such as roads, rail roads, bridges, agricultural farms,
industries, urban centres, the national army, the police force, the education
system, health services etc lay in ruins at the end of the war. These institutions
needed to be revived and rebuilt.
 The reconstruction programs were initiated by Abraham Lincoln, the civil war
president, but continued during the presidency of Andrew Jackson, 17th President
of the United States 1865–1869; Ulysses S. Grant, 18th President of the United
States 1869–1877; Rutherford B. Hayes 19th President of the United States 1877–
1881 and continued into the 20th century.

35
  The reconstruction programs were mainly aimed at addressing problems such as
that of slavery and other minorities and well as creating a sense of national
harmony and cohesiveness.
 Most of the programs were finances by resources from the federal reserves in
Washington, the capital of the union.
 However, although the reconstruction programs were well intentioned, with time
they ended up polarising the country even further as some of the whites especially
from the south who came to be known as the Southern Democrats, felt that these
programs were only benefiting the lazy freed black ex slaves most of whom had
drifted into the towns at the end of the civil war in search of jobs.
 These differences split the country even in the congress and senate into the
Democrats and the Republicans.
 The whites now resorted to extreme measures that were racist in nature to protect
their interests in the south. They regularly terrorised and intimidated the blacks
blaming them for the economic problems facing the country by the end of the 19 th
century.
 Therefore, although the reconstruction received a mixed reaction across the
country with most of the southern whites opposing them, nevertheless they
achieved much in the social and economic transformation of the country. The
reconstruction programs transformed the USA into a modern state and she was
able to successfully achieve an industrial revolution by the end of the 19th
century.
 Some of the major reconstruction programs included the building of the railroad
from the East coast to the west coast by the 1870s; rebuilding of the federal army,
rebuilding cities, dams, roads etc which were critical for economic development.

Question
What were the major factors that contributed to the emergence of the USA as a major
industrial and world power in the aftermath of the civil war?
 The Monroe Doctrine-an assertive foreign policy (read on this)
 The policy of Manifest Destiny: The USA was able to acquire new lands and
resources especially west of River Mississippi which made the country richer.
 The unity and patriotism that resulted from the civil war.
 The impact of the reconstruction projects on the economy. This led to rapid
development of industries etc
 The implementation of the constitution. The constitution upheld democratic
principles and freedoms.
 The rapid industrialization of the country produces more wealth
 Open migration policy especially from Europe. These brought resources and
wealth.
 Investment in technology
 Emergence of an entrepreneurial and aggression business class.
 Good leadership
 Peace and stability in the country after the civil war.

36
TOPIC 9: EMANCIPATION AND RISE OF WHITE RACISM, RISE OF AFRO-
AMERICAN NATIONALISM AND THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT IN THE
USA

Questions
 What were the major factors that contributed to the rise of Afro American
nationalism after the civil war of the 1860s?
 Examine the conditions that faced the Afro Americans after the era of
emancipation in 1860s.

Background
 The end of the civil war in the USA was followed by the emancipation of the
African slaves and the start of the reconstruction programs to rebuild the economy
of the country that was destroyed by the civil war.
 The southern states which were predominantly slave states were the most
affected by the civil war.
 With the passage of the Emancipation proclamation by President Lincoln on 1 st
January 1863 and the 13th Amendment of the Constitution in 1865, slavery was
now made illegal in the USA. This was followed with the 14 th amendment of the
constitution of 1868, which guaranteed citizenship to all freed slaves and the 15 th
amendment that guaranteed blacks voting rights in the USA.
 As peace was now restored in both the southern and northern states many of the
blacks now migrated from the south states to the north in search of employment.
 However, the post emancipation era in the USA was not a period of progress for
most of the blacks. The blacks now realised that they did not have the skills and
knowledge to compete effectively with the whites for the job market. Majority of
the blacks were poor and could not cope with the challenges that they now faced.
 For most of the blacks, the post emancipation era was a period of a struggle
against poverty and discrimination they now faced from the white people. Unlike
during the era of slavery when the blacks were basically seen as slaves, now they
were perceived as competitors for the available resources with the white
communities. With high levels of literacy among the free slaves it was difficult to
secure any kind of employment either in the south or the north.
 The whites perceived the blacks as unfairly benefiting from the reconstruction
programs and therefore sought to prevent the blacks from experiencing any kind
of progress.
 The history of the freed slaves in the post emancipation era is generally
characterised with desperation and growing militancy and protest movements as
the blacks pursued liberty, justice under the law, political equality, and economic
development, the acquisition of literacy, mutual self help and nation building.
 However, the whites embarked on a process that would make sure that they
denied all these to the blacks. The whites and especially in the former southern
slave states increasingly grew paranoid and distasteful of the blacks who had
remained after emancipation.

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 In the period after emancipation more than 250,000 former slaves remained in
the south, mainly in the cities where they generally did menial jobs. Many of them
had feared continuing to put up in the plantations.
 In the southern states the freed slaves experienced the worst forms of
discrimination and abuse. The white population devised various tactics to
continue their dominance over the blacks. For the whites exerting dominance over
the blacks is something that gave them a sense of psychological satisfaction.
 The whites employed various tactics to continue the marginalization and control
over the blacks:
1. One of these was the promulgation of laws in the constitutions of the various
southern states to maintain white supremacy. Laws on vagrancy, black codes, the
grandfather clauses, poll taxes, all white primaries, requirement that all black
voters be required to know the USA constitution by heart so as to be allowed to
vote, language test etc. All these laws meant that it was difficult for blacks to
participate in elective politics and therefore not be in a position to advocate for
their rights under the constitution. The whites wanted to make sure that the blacks
would have no representation and therefore not enjoy any constitutional rights.
 These laws are known as the JIM CROW LAWS in American history. The
whites in the southern basically manipulated the existing laws so as to
discriminate against other racial minorities such as the blacks and later the
Chinese/Asian, Amerindians, and Hispanics/Latinos.
 The result of these oppressive Jim Crow laws was that many blacks were
disenfranchised as they were systematically forced off the voter rolls. . The
number of African American voters dropped dramatically, and they no longer
were able to elect representatives.
 During this period from 1890s to the 1960s, the white-dominated Democratic
Party regained political control over the South. The Republican Party—the "party
of Lincoln"—which had been the party that most blacks belonged to, shrank to
insignificance as black voter registration was suppressed. By the early 20th
century, almost all elected officials in the South were white Democrats.
2. The whites also sought to maintain their supremacy through racist paramilitary
groups such as the Ku Klux Klan which emerged in Tennessee and the White
Camelia. These were white terrorist groups that were formed mainly by the
southern white groups to suppress blacks and involved all forms of violence such
as rape, lynching of blacks, bombing, and arson among other forms of violent
activities.
 These groups often held “White gatherings only” and this was usually at nigh to
devise new ways of paralysing black activities. It was the view of these terrorists
groups that no black was to be allowed to occupy any position in government. If
they were not able to wipe out the entire black race, then all blacks were to be
subjected to discrimination.
 Usually, the night meetings ended with the engagement in violent activities such
torching, black homes, churches and other properties and the lynching of blacks.
3. Another tactic employed by the whites was racial segregation. By law, public
facilities and government services such as education, transport, hotels and
restaurants and banking were divided into separate "white" and "colored"

38
 domains. Characteristically, those for colored were underfunded and of inferior
quality.
4. And lastly, the whites also employed the tactic of exploitation. Increased
economic oppression of blacks, Latinos, and Asians, denial of economic
opportunities, and widespread employment discrimination

Black Responses to White Racism and the Rise of the Civil Rights Movement
 Black response against white racism crystallised into the civil rights movement as
from the period of emancipation. The civil rights movement is divided into two
stages: The period up to WW II and the post war era up to the 1960s when Black
Nationalism reached its peak with the activism of such individuals as Martin
Luther King Jnr and Malcom X.
 The black communities responded in various ways to white racism and
oppression. Under such an oppressive and hostile environment many of the blacks
opted to take a subservient position by which they realised that opposition to the
whites will only unleash more violence. Therefore, for most of these blacks they
opted to cooperate with the system by resigning to the inferior roles they had been
allocated by the whites just because of their skin colour.
 The more passive and more moderate among the blacks opted for a policy of
accommodation into the white system. This was the philosophy of Booker T.
Washington one of the black leaders who opted for a more accommodationist
policy towards the whites. Booker T. Washington believed that the blacks could
improve their conditions not by engaging in counter violence against the whites
but by learning new skills and knowledge and therefore be able to effectively
compete with the whites in all spheres of life. This was a philosophy that the more
radical elements within the black community rejected as being too subservient.
 Others such as Fredrick Douglas opted for a more militant approach to white
racism so that the blacks could be able to claim what they believed was rightly
theirs.
 Other leaders such as W.E.B Dubois advocated for a radical approach that would
enable the blacks to get justice and equality. To Dubois, this should be the
objective of all blacks even if it meant engaging in violence.
 Lastly, there were black leaders such as Martin Luther King Jnr who believed
that violence was not the right path to the achievement of equal rights for the
black people. King argued that the black people should engage in passive
resistance and Non-Violence through boycotts of public services and picketing
as a strategy to create a sense of awareness and eventually prompt the government
to implement reforms. Luther’s policy was largely non antagonistic and many of
the radical black leaders did not support this strategy as it appeared to be giving
too many concessions to the whites.
 Therefore, the post emancipation era was a period when the blacks found
themselves at the cross roads as to their future in American society. It was an
issue that generated heated debate not only among the black people but also the
entire American society in general.
 In fact, this was an issue that led to a national dilemma. Whereas some of the
blacks believed that their future was in the USA others became too disillusioned

39
 with the turn of events. In fact, some black leaders such as Marcus Garvey began
to articulate the “back to Africa movement” in which he argued that since post
emancipation America had rejected the black people, they should go back to
Africa as this was the only place where their rights and freedoms would be
guaranteed.
 This was actually an idea that American leaders during the era of slavery and after
supported. Abraham Lincoln who is often regarded as the icon of black civil
rights argued that the only solution to black suffering was to resettle them back in
Africa.
 James Monroe American president (1816-1824) actually went ahead and
established Liberia in West Africa as settlement for freed slaves.
 However, most black leaders in the post emancipation era did not believe in
resettlement in Africa. Black leaders like W.E.B Dubois believed that the freed
slaves should fight for their rights within the American soil. These leaders
encouraged the black people to engage in all tactics to reclaim their rights.
 Therefore, during the post emancipation era African Americans devised different
strategies to reclaim their rights and freedoms. They resisted it in numerous ways
and sought better opportunities through lawsuits, new organizations, political
redress, and labor organizing
 They also formed organizations to articulate their ideas. One such an
organization was The National Association for the Advancement of Colored
People (NAACP) was founded in 1909 by WEB Dubois. It fought to end race
discrimination through litigation, education, and lobbying efforts. Its crowning
achievement was its legal victory in the Supreme Court decision Brown v. Board
of Education (1954) that rejected separate white and colored school systems and
by implication overturned the "separate but equal" doctrine established in Plessy
v. Ferguson.
 The situation for blacks outside the South was somewhat better (in most states
they could vote and have their children educated, though they still faced
discrimination in housing and jobs). From 1910 to 1970, African Americans
sought better lives by migrating north and west. A total of nearly seven million
blacks left the South in what was known as the Great Migration.
 Invigorated by the victory of Brown and frustrated by the lack of immediate
practical effect, private citizens increasingly rejected gradualist, legalistic
approaches as the primary tool to bring about desegregation. They were faced
with "massive resistance" in the South by proponents of racial segregation and
voter suppression. In defiance, African Americans adopted a combined strategy of
direct action with nonviolent resistance known as civil disobedience, giving rise
to the African-American Civil Rights Movement of 1955–1968.

 The strategy of public education, legislative lobbying, and litigation in the court
system that typified the Civil Rights Movement in the first half of the 20th
Century broadened after Brown to a strategy that emphasized "direct action"—
primarily boycotts, sit-ins, Freedom Rides, marches and similar tactics that relied
on mass mobilization, nonviolent resistance and civil disobedience. This mass
action approach typified the movement from 1960 to 1968.

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 Churches, the centers of their communities, local grassroots organizations,
fraternal societies and black-owned businesses, mobilized volunteers to
participate in broad-based actions. This was a more direct and potentially more
rapid means of creating change than the traditional approach of mounting court
challenges.

 Among the major land mark events that characterized the African American civil
rights movement was when on 1 st December 1955, Rosa Parks one of the leaders
of the civil rights movements and a member of the NAACP, refused to give up
her seat on a public bus to a white fellow traveler as was required under the
segregation laws that had been implemented in many southern states. Parks was
arrested, tried, and convicted for disorderly conduct and violating a local
ordinance.

 After word of this incident reached the black community, 50 African-American

leaders gathered and organized the Montgomery Bus Boycott to demand a more
humane bus transportation system. Leading figures such as Martin Luther and
the NAACP successfully organized the boycott of the public transport system in
Montgomery for 381 days until the system was disbanded in November 1956.

 During this period student leaders and other black civil rights activists organized
sit ins and demonstrations to demand for blacks to be enrolled in all white schools
and colleges in the south, especially in Mississippi.

 In 1961, Freedom rides were also organized in the public transport system to test
whether desegregation had ended in the public transport system in the south.
Campaigns were also carried out to encourage black voter registration so as to
encourage black participation in politics.

 Under the leadership of Martin Luther King Jnr black civil rights leaders
organized events to sensitize the black community on civil rights and force the
government to end segregation. These included the Birmingham Campaign (1963-
64) to encourage black voter registration and the March on Washington of August
28th 1963, to advocate for better employment opportunities for blacks.

 These efforts although frustrated on many fronts finally bore fruit when on July
2, 1964, President Johnson (who succeeded John F Kennedy after his
assassination in April 1964) signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, that banned
discrimination based on "race, color, religion, sex or national origin" in
employment practices and public accommodations. The bill authorized the
Attorney General to file lawsuits to enforce the new law. The law also nullified
state and local laws that required such discrimination.

 In recognition to his contribution to the civil rights movement, Martin Luther

King Jnr was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize on December 10 th 1964, becoming
the youngest man to receive the award; he was 35 years of age.

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  The assassination of King on April 4, 1968 a major setback to the progress of the
civil rights movement in the USA but by then the African Americans had gained
many rights which now enabled them to enjoy more freedoms compared to their
predecessors back in the late 19th century.

The Harlem Renaissance and the Rise of Afro-American Nationalism

 The post emancipation era created a sense of emptiness and disillusionment
within the black community in the USA. Despite the enactment of the
Emancipation Edit and constitutional reforms the blacks faced discrimination in
all aspects of their interaction with the white community.
 The black community now came out strongly to establish their own unique
identity and place within the American society as a mechanism of surviving the
challenges they faced in the post emancipation era. The quest for education,
literacy, voting rights, employment and the end of all forms of discrimination
were the major focus of the black community. It was now realised that unless the
black people developed their own unique identity and fought for their rights as a
united front they will never achieve their goals.
 Within the black community, different approaches were conceived to attain these
objectives. There were the moderates who believed that acculturation and
assimilation into the white community was the only way the black could be
accepted and mainstreamed into the white dominated system. This group was
represented by individuals such as Booker T. Washington.
 The moderates as many scholars of African American history have observed
were the majority in American society. These were people who had come to
accept and submit to the Euro-American view of the black people and Africa.
They had come to accept their inferior status imposed on them by the whites.
Since their skin colour and Africa were recognised as the source of their torment,
they had learnt to hate their black color and Africa.
 For example, Charles E. Silberman, a black American scholar has summed up
well the full psychological impact of this when he says: “in general, therefore
Africa served to alienate the Negro not just from America but from the whole
human race. In self defence, the negro tried to disassociate himself from Africa”.
 These views were also expressed by other scholars such as Talcott Parsons and
Kenneth Clark who said:” black people have been shaped in their behaviour and
self definition by the standards of the politically dominant white race. African
Americans have always been victims of the legacy of slavery and have been
exposed all forms of derogation of their blackness. Persistent derogation lowered
their self esteem and self confidence. Most of them therefore turned to the white
world to regain their lost confidence only to find that the experience was even
more tragic than expected”.
 However, many of the black people came to realise that complete assimilation
even if possible did not immediately guarantee them equal citizenship in a white
dominated society. The black man’s aim to be treated as equal remained an
illusion as Silberman has rightly observed. The reality was that their dark
complexion was something they could not erase and therefore their rejection of
Africa and their dark skin color was at the bottom a rejection of himself. The

42
 Negro despite his efforts to gain acceptance in the white society will continue to
be treated as a Negro no matter how hard he tried to be assimilated.
 The futility of aping the white man led to afresh reasoning within the Negro
community that their number one enemy was in fact the white man and his values.
Hence the Negro was now forced to look elsewhere for new standards, values,
identification and allies in the struggle for total emancipation.
 This formed the basis of a new movement of black consciousness and black
cultural identity in the USA and in essence this was the beginning of Black
Nationalism in the USA. This movement was propelled by a new quest for black
cultural identity that was distinct from white culture. The foundation of the
growth of black cultural consciousness is what is known as the Harlem
Renaissance in USA history.
 The Harlem Renaissance is described as an outpouring of Afro-American artistic
and literary achievement that gained popularity from the 1920s. Harlem is a
suburb in New York City where black intellectuals congregated and shared ideas
on how they can nurture a unique black identity that was not diluted by white
values. These intellectuals included people like Alain Locke, Claude Mckay,
Jesse Redmon Fauset etc. They created a new form of art and music that
specifically appealed to the black consciousness and this provided for a proper
forum through which black issues were openly articulated and strategies laid out
on how blacks can be able to remain relevant and assertive in American society.
Harlem renaissance contributed in the preservation of black culture and heritage
and ultimately was able to define a black destiny that was independent and free of
interference from the dominant white race.
 Hence, Harlem Renaissance was central in the growth of Afro- American
nationalism as it provided a forum through which the black community could be
able to create a sense of self confidence and assertiveness even under pressure
from the white society.
 Afro nationalism created a sense of racial pride and humanity to the black race
that had undergone generations of dehumanization and abuse.
 One of the major focus of Afro-American nationalism was the rejection of white
values and the institutions built by the white people to continue the oppression of
the black people. The black people were to build their own values and institutions
so as to make them independent and free of control from the white society.
 Afro American nationalism was basically a form of cultural nationalism. The
black people now looked towards Africa for their values and heroes. Many
African leaders such as Jomo Kenyatta and Kwame Nkrumah became heroes of
the black community and many of them denounced their white Christian names
and now took up African names. They now embarked to study African languages,
culture and history so as to develop this new identity.
 It involved in the words of Stokley Carmichael, a civil rights activist “a struggle
for the right to create our own terms through which to define ourselves and our
relations to society and have these recognised as the first necessity of a free
people”.
 Although by the 1950s most blacks openly supported the search for a black
identity, there were some who argued that this transition should be gradual but

43
 others wanted a more radical approach as a means to achieve their ends. However,
the general consensus among the black community in the USA at the time was
that the black people must fight for a segment of free America. Ultimately there
Afro- American nationalism was a two-pronged process, “is on the one hand a
revolution in the streets and on the other a revolution in the winding corridors of
the mind”.

Key Afro American Leaders during the Era of the Civil Rights
Movement:

1. Booker Taliaferro Washington (1858-1915)

 Booker T. Washington represents the moderate if not the subservient streak of
Afro American approach to racial discrimination in the USA in the post
emancipation era.
 Although Booker T. Washington openly acknowledged that life for the black
people had turned for the worse in the post emancipation, he did not like most of
the other more radical civil activists believe in a radical approach to addressing
the problems facing black communities. Instead, he believed that blacks should
accept that they were disadvantaged with their white counterparts and therefore
should aspire to improve their life by acquiring education and skills which would
enable them to effectively compete with white people. Therefore, Booker T
Washington was a strong advocate for black empowerment through education.
 Booker T. Washington’s agenda was not seen as purely political by many white
people and the administration in Washington and therefore he was not really
seemed a threat to white supremacy compared with such leaders as W. E. B Du
Bois. Generally, Booker T Washington was more reconciliatory and level headed
as many whites saw him and therefore, he was widely supported and even funded
by white groups who wanted to create a harmonious relationship with blacks in
the south.
 For the black leaders, Booker T Washington was seen as sell out and traitor and
many condemned him in their speeches and writings.
 In essence therefore, Booker T Washington appears a polarising figure who was
never really able to get full support either from the white and black communities
in the USA during the era of the civil rights movement. Nevertheless, he has
remained a key figure in the civil rights movement during its early stages.
 Booker T. Washington’s approach to black civil rights movement can be
understood by looking at his earlier upbringing.
 Washington was born into slavery to Jane, an enslaved woman, and a white
father, a nearby planter, in a rural area of the Piedmont, south-western Virginia. In
his early years Booker T. Washington spent of his time in rural West Virginia
where he worked in the coal mines at night and went to the nearby school of
Hampton Institute where he graduated in 1875. After some years if teaching at

44
 Wayland Seminary in Washington DC and Hampton Institute, he was asked to
start a school at Tuskegee, Alabama in 1881.
 Booker T Washington distinguished himself as an individual committed to
develop black education and his focus was to transform the Tuskegee Institute to
be a model school for the black people. Washington believed that the black people
were marginalised and backward because of lack of proper education and he
reasoned that if the black people attained good education, they would be able to
effectively compete with the white people.
 Washington specifically emphasised industrial and practical education for the
blacks as he believed that it was more relevant and it would not antagonise the
white people most of who were only interested in white collar jobs.
 Washington therefore emerged as an individual who was largely moderate and
compromising on matters dealing with the Afro American struggle for equality.
 Consequently, Booker T Washington got a lot of support from the white
southerners and even moderate blacks. For example, J.K. Vardaman, a
Mississippi white southerner clearly supported him when he said:
“Certainly, a program of training Negroes to become farmers, mechanics
and domestic servants would be more acceptable to Mississippi than the
program of classical education advocated by many northern educators”.

 Earlier, Verdaman had said “what the north is sending south is not money but
dynamite; this education is ruining our Negroes. They are demanding equality”.
 In essence, Booker T Washington was not demanding for equal rights but
accommodation within the white dominated system. Booker T Washington even
believed that black people were not ready for a universal franchise due to their
poor education and this indirectly a justification of the Jim Claw Laws from one
of the black leaders.
 Booker T. Washington’s position was well explained in his famous speech in
Atlanta during a sales exposition in 1895. During his speech that has come to be
known as the “Atlanta Compromise”, Booker T. Washington said: “in all things
that are purely social, we can be as separate as the five fingers, yet one as the
hand in all things essential to mutual progress”. Referring directly to his fellow
blacks he said, “ To those of my race who depend upon bettering their condition
in a foreign land or who underestimate the importance of cultivating friendly
relations with the white southern man….. I would say cast down your bucket
where you are and work to develop the south”.
 Thus Booker T Washington’s program of promoting black advancement without
antagonising white supremacy was seen by many white was the most ideal type of
education as it would not antagonise their supremacy. Actually, for most of the
whites were comfortable with this kind of education and some believed that with
this kind of approach the black community would continue to serve the
establishment in the same inferior roles that they had done during the era of
slavery.
 Among the whites Washington became more and more popular and he was
heavily funded to start black self-help projects such as the National Negro
Business League. Washington was even regularly invited by the federal

45
 government in Washington DC to address on issues dealing with black
empowerment through education and he wrote many books to explain his position
on black advancement. Washington even expanded his ideas to include the
advancement of the black people throughout the world and especially in Africa
where he believed that the Africans could be able to play a more relevant role
within the colonial system through education and acquisition of new skills.
 However, for most of the radical leftist black American leaders Booker T
Washington’s ideas and programs could at best only consign the black people into
servitude by undermining their aspirations. This was particularly the case with the
growing body of white black educated elites who were growing increasingly
restless with continued white racism and were losing patience with people like
Washington. One such leader was W.E.D. Du Bois.
 Hence, although Booker T Washington played a key role in the attainment of
education by the blacks during the civil rights era, he nevertheless scored poorly
in regard to his methodology of achieving these rights and this explains why he is
not held in very high esteem by the civil rights movement.

2. Fredrick Douglas (1818-1895)

 Fredrick Douglas belongs to the first generation of the civil rights leaders in the
post emancipation era and his ideas mainly targeted the new emerging problems
in the post emancipation era such as white racism, discrimination and the
challenges and problems facing the blacks such as unemployment, white violence
and the franchise. These were problems that were real and of much concern to
the blacks at the time. Douglas was often uncompromising and radical in
approach and could not accept with such moderate and accommodationist
approaches such as that of Booker T Washington who actually rose to prominence
after the death of Douglas in 1895.
 Douglas’ approach to the civil rights movement was generally militant and he
strongly believed that the future of the black community did not rely on making
concessions to the white community but coming out strongly to demand for their
rights. Douglas did not believe that blacks should migrate and move to urban
centers as an escape from the challenges of segregation but rather should confront
their problems head on. Migration in the eyes of Douglas was not the solution to
black suffering.
 Frederick Douglass has gone down in history as a prominent American
abolitionist, author and orator. Born a slave, Douglass escaped at age 20 and went
on to become a world-renowned anti-slavery activist. His three autobiographies
are considered important works of the slave narrative tradition as well as classics
of American autobiography. Douglass' work as a reformer ranged from his
abolitionist activities in the early 1840s to his attacks on Jim Crow and lynching
in the 1890s. For 16 years he edited an influential black newspaper and achieved
international fame as an inspiring and persuasive speaker and writer. In thousands
of speeches and editorials, he levied a powerful indictment against slavery and
racism, provided an indomitable voice of hope for his people, embraced
antislavery politics and preached his own brand of American ideals.

46
 An abolitionist, writer and orator Frederick Douglass was the most important
black American leader of the nineteenth century. Born Frederick Augustus
Washington Bailey on Maryland's Eastern Shore, he was the son of a slave
woman and, probably, her white master. Upon his escape from slavery at age
twenty, he adopted the name of the hero of Sir Walter Scott's The Lady of the
Lake. Douglass immortalized his years as a slave in Narrative of the Life of
Frederick Douglass, an American Slave (1845). This and two subsequent
autobiographies, My Bondage and My Freedom (1855) and The Life and Times of
Frederick Douglass (1881), mark his greatest contributions to American culture.
Written as antislavery propaganda and personal revelation, they are regarded as
the finest examples of the slave narrative tradition and as classics of American
autobiography.
 Douglass's life as a reformer ranged from his abolitionist activities in the early
1840s to his attacks on Jim Crow and lynching in the 1890s. For sixteen years he
edited an influential black newspaper and achieved international fame as an orator
and writer of great persuasive power. In thousands of speeches and editorials he
levied an irresistible indictment against slavery and racism, provided an
indomitable voice of hope for his people, embraced antislavery politics, and
preached his own brand of American ideals. In the 1850s he broke with the
strictly moralist brand of abolitionism led by William Lloyd Garrison; he
supported the early women's rights movement; and he gave direct assistance to
John Brown's conspiracy that led to the raid on Harpers Ferry in 1859.
 Rhetorically, Douglass was a master of irony, as illustrated by his famous Fourth
of July speech in 1852: "This Fourth of July is yours, not mine. You may rejoice, I
must mourn," he declared. Then he accused his unsuspecting audience in
Rochester, New York, of mockery for inviting him to speak and quoted Psalm
137, where the children of Israel are forced to sit down "by the rivers of
Babylon," there to "sing the Lord's song in a strange land." For the ways that race
have caused the deepest contradictions in American history, few better sources of
insight exist than Douglass's speeches. Moreover, for understanding prejudice,
there are few better starting points than his timeless definition of racism as a
"diseased imagination."
 Douglass welcomed the Civil War in 1861 as a moral crusade against slavery.
During the war he labored as a propagandist of the Union cause and
emancipation, a recruiter of black troops, and (on two occasions) an adviser to
President Abraham Lincoln. He viewed the Union victory as an apocalyptic
rebirth of America as a nation rooted in a rewritten Constitution and the ideal of
racial equality. Some of his hopes were dashed during Reconstruction and the
Gilded Age, but he continued to travel widely and lecture on racial issues,
national politics, and women's rights. In the 1870s Douglass moved to
Washington, D.C., where he edited a newspaper and became president of the ill-
fated Freedman's Bank. As a stalwart Republican, Douglass was appointed
marshal (1877-1881) and recorder of deeds (1881-1886) for the District of
Columbia, and chargé d'affaires for Santo Domingo and minister to Haiti (1889-
1891).

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  Brilliant, heroic, and complex, Douglass became a symbol of his age and a unique
voice for humanism and social justice. His life and thought will always speak
profoundly to the meaning of being black in America, as well as the human
calling to resist oppression. Douglass died in 1895 after years of trying to preserve
a black abolitionist's meaning and memory of the great events he had witnessed
and helped to shape.

3. Ida B Wells (1862-1931)

Background
 Ida Bell Wells-Barnett was an African American journalist, newspaper editor
and, with her husband, newspaper owner Ferdinand L. Barnett, an early leader in
the civil rights movement. She documented lynching in the United States,
showing how it was often a way to control or punish blacks who competed with
whites. She was active in the women's rights and the women's suffrage
movement, establishing several notable women's organizations. Wells was a
skilled and persuasive rhetorician, and traveled internationally on lecture tours.
 Ida B Wells was born in Holly Springs, Mississippi a year after the Emancipation
Edict was passed by President Abraham Lincoln and therefore she lived in a
society which was grappling with the challenges of racism and white segregation.
She mainly distinguished herself as a teacher and later as writer and journalist and
she mainly wrote on issues of white atrocities such as lynching and arson against
blacks mainly in the south.
 She was generally militant in her approach to the civil rights movement and got a
lot of encouragement from other civil rights leaders such as Fredrick Douglas.
Although she shared in many forums with other leaders such as Du Bois she
complained of marginalisation and this she mainly attributed it to her gender. She
argues that Du Bois may have played a role in the elimination of her name from
the list of the original founders of NAACP, the civil rights organization. She
therefore emerged as a strong advocate of gender equality.

4. William Edward Burghardt Du Bois (1868-1963)

Background
 WEB Du Bois is in many circles regarded as the true and worthy successor to
Fredrick Douglas in the civil rights movement in the USA. He was specifically
radical and militant in his approach and was openly opposed to the concessions
other black leaders such as Booker T. Washington had made to the white
community.
 Dubois believed that the approach of Washington was naïve and would not take
the black community anywhere. Therefore, he strongly condemned Washington’s
Atlanta Compromise of 1895 as hollow and unacceptable in the quest for blacks
for equality. According to Du Bois any concessions made to the whites could be
the foundation for the continued marginalization and oppression of the blacks.
 Du Bois’ approach therefore lay in the mobilization of the blacks to attained
equality by acquiring education and skills that were competitive in white
dominated post emancipation society. Du Bois believed that the blacks were not

48
 inferior in any way to the white people but had only been made to believe so
through brainwashing. The black people in the eyes of Du Bois were capable of
acquiring the necessary skills to lead a more respectable and decent lives just like
the white people. Therefore, it was time that the black people came out to claim
what was rightfully their rights. It was for these ideas that Du Bois was seen as
threat to white supremacy and all efforts were made to frustrate him at every turn.
His activities were closely monitored by the FBI and he was actually stripped of
his USA citizenship during his later years which were spent in Ghana where he
died in 1963.
 DU Bois has distinguished himself as a major American sociologist, historian,
civil rights activist, Pan-Africanist, author, and writer. Born in Massachusetts, Du
Bois grew up in a tolerant community and experienced little racism as a child. His
parents were of mixed ancestry; his mother was black while his father was of Irish
ancestry. However, in his later years Du Bois rejected any association with his
white ancestry as even though he was classified as colored he still experienced
segregation just like the rest of the blacks.
 After graduating from Harvard, where he was the first African American to earn a
doctorate, he became a professor of history, sociology, and economics at Atlanta
University. Du Bois was one of the co-founders of the National Association for
the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).
 Much of Du Bois contribution to the civil rights movement was his leadership at
the NAACP where he also edited its monthly journal named the CRISIS. Dubois
also rose to national prominence in the USA as the leader of the Niagara
Movement, a group of African American activists who wanted equal rights for
blacks. The movement condemned the Atlanta Compromise and argued that it
undermined black quest for equality.
 Dubois was a gifted writer and orator and he wrote many books and articles
where he condemned white violence such as lynching and discrimination through
such laws as the Jim Claw laws. He generally argued that reconstruction had not
benefitted the black people especially in the south as most had remained destitute
and poor. Reconstruction to him were “White elephant” projects which had only
contributed to the growing marginalization of the blacks.
 In his later years Du bois increasingly became a pan Africanist as he came to
believe that unless the black people gained total emancipation everywhere in the
world, the emancipation in the USA could be of no value. Du bois was
instrumental in the organization of the Pan African Congresses from 1900 which
brought together black leaders from different parts of the world to discuss the
problems facing black people. He strongly campaigned for the liberation of
African countries from colonial rule and when Ghana became the first black
African country to gain independence in 1957, Dubois was invited as the chief
guest to Ghana’s independence celebrations by Kwame Nkrumah, the first
president of the country. He was also made an honorary citizen of Ghana where
he lived till his death.
 Du Bois was a prolific author. His collection of essays, The Souls of Black Folk,
was a seminal work in African-American literature; and his 1935 magnum opus
Black Reconstruction in America challenged the prevailing orthodoxy that blacks

49
 were responsible for the failures of the Reconstruction era. He wrote the first
scientific treatise in the field of sociology; and he published three
autobiographies, each of which contain insightful essays on sociology, politics,
and history. In his role as editor of the NAACP's journal The Crisis, he published
many influential pieces. Du Bois felt that capitalism was a primary cause of
racism, and he was generally sympathetic to socialist causes throughout his life.
He was an ardent peace activist and advocated for nuclear disarmament. The Civil
Rights Act, embodying many of the reforms Du Bois had campaigned for his
entire life, was enacted one year after his death.
 Although Dubois has gone down to history as one of the greatest civil rights
leaders, he has often been accused of being an uncompromising and polarising
character who often used his writing talents to demonise and belittle his
opponents and this explains why he was constantly at logger heads with his
colleagues at NAACP that led to his resignation. As a professor at Atlanta
University, he was regarded as haughty and aloof by other faculty members and
students alike.

5. Marcus Garvey (1887-1940)

Marcus Garvey and his organization, the Universal Negro Improvement Association
(UNIA), represent the largest mass movement in African-American history. Proclaiming
a Black Nationalist "Back to Africa" message, Garvey and the UNIA established 700
branches in thirty-eight states by the early 1920s. While chapters existed in the larger
urban areas such as New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles, Garvey's message reached
into small towns across the country as well. Later groups such as Father Divine's
Universal Peace Mission Movement and the Nation of Islam drew members and
philosophy from Garvey's organization, and the UNIA's appeal and influence were felt
not only in America but in Canada, the Caribbean, and throughout Africa.

Considering the strong political and economic black nationalism of Garvey's movement,
it may seem odd to include an essay on him in a Web site on religion in America.
However, his philosophy and organization had a rich religious component that he blended
with the political and economic aspects. Garvey himself claimed that his "Declaration of
Rights of the Negro Peoples of the World," along with the Bible, served as "the Holy
Writ for our Negro Race." He stated very clearly that "as we pray to Almighty God to
save us through his Holy Words so shall we with confidence in ourselves follow the
sentiment of the Declaration of Rights and carve our way to liberty." For Garvey, it was
no less than the will of God for black people to be free to determine their own destiny.
His organization took as its motto "One God! One Aim! One Destiny!" and looked to the
literal fulfillment of Psalm 68:31: "Princes shall come out of Egypt: Ethiopia shall soon
stretch forth her hands unto God."

Garvey was born in 1887 in St. Anne's Bay, Jamaica. Due to the economic hardship of
his family, he left school at age fourteen and learned the printing and newspaper business.
He became interested in politics and soon got involved in projects aimed at helping those
on the bottom of society. Unsatisfied with his work, he travelled to London in 1912 and

50
stayed in England for two years. During this time he paid close attention to the
controversy between Ireland and England concerning Ireland's independence. He was
also exposed to the ideas and writings of a group of black colonial writers that came
together in London around the African Times and Orient Review. Nationalism in both
Ireland and Africa along with ideas such as race conservation undoubtedly had an impact
on Garvey.

However, he later remembered that the most influential experience of his stay in London
was reading Booker T. Washington's autobiography Up From Slavery. Washington
believed African Americans needed to improve themselves first, showing whites in
America that they deserved equal rights. Although politically involved behind the scenes,
Washington repeatedly claimed that African Americans would not benefit from political
activism and started an industrial training school in Alabama that embodied his own
philosophy of self-help. Garvey embraced Washington's ideas and returned to Jamaica in
1914 to found the UNIA with the motto "One God! One Aim! One Destiny!"

Initially he kept very much in line with Washington by encouraging his fellow Jamaicans
of African descent to work hard, demonstrate good morals and a strong character, and not
worry about politics as a tool to advance their cause. Garvey did not make much headway
in Jamaica and decided to visit America in order to meet Booker T. Washington and learn
more about the situation of African Americans. By the time Garvey arrived in America in
1916, Washington had died, but Garvey decided to travel around the country and observe
African Americans and their struggle for equal rights.

What Garvey saw was a shifting population and a diminishing hope in Jim Crow's
demise. African Americans were moving in large numbers out of the rural South and into
the urban areas of both North and South. As World War One came to an end,
disillusionment was beginning to take hold. Not only was the optimism in the continuing
improvement of humanity and society broken apart, but so was any hope on the part of
African Americans that they would gain the rights enjoyed by every white American
citizen. African Americans had served in large numbers in the war, and many expected
some kind of respect and acknowledgment that they too were equal citizens. Indeed,
World War One was the perfect opportunity for African Americans to fulfill Booker T.
Washington's requirement for equality and freedom. Through dedicated service in the
armed forces, they could prove their worth and show they deserved the same rights as
whites. However, as black soldiers returned from the war, and more and more African
Americans moved into the urban areas, racial tensions grew. Between 1917 and 1919
race riots erupted in East St. Louis, Chicago, Tulsa, and other cities, demonstrating that
whites did not intend to treat African Americans any differently than they had before the
war.

After surveying the racial situation in America, Garvey was convinced that integration
would never happen and that only economic, political, and cultural success on the part of
African Americans would bring about equality and respect. With this goal he established
the headquarters of the UNIA in New York in 1917 and began to spread a message of
Black Nationalism and the eventual return to Africa of all people of African descent. His

51
brand of Black Nationalism had three components—unity, pride in the African cultural
heritage, and complete autonomy. Garvey believed people of African descent could
establish a great independent nation in their ancient homeland of Africa. He took the self-
help message of Washington and adapted it to the situation he saw in America, taking a
somewhat individualistic, integrationist philosophy and turning it into a more corporate,
politically-minded, nation-building message.

In 1919 Garvey purchased an auditorium in Harlem and named it Liberty Hall. There he
held nightly meetings to get his message out, sometimes to an audience of six thousand.
In 1918 he began a newspaper, Negro World, which by 1920 had a circulation
somewhere between 50,000 and 200,000. Membership in the UNIA is difficult to assess.
At one point, Garvey claimed to have six million members. That figure is most likely
inflated. However, it is beyond dispute that millions were involved and directly affected
by Garvey and his message.

To promote unity, Garvey encouraged African Americans to be concerned with

themselves first. He stated after World War One that "[t]he first dying that is to be done
by the black man in the future will be done to make himself free. And then when we are
finished, if we have any charity to bestow, we may die for the white man. But as for me, I
think I have stopped dying for him." Black people had to do the work that success and
independence demanded, and, most important, they had to do that work for themselves.
"If you want liberty," claimed Garvey to a meeting held in 1921, "you yourselves must
strike the blow. If you must be free, you must become so through your own effort."

But Garvey knew African Americans would not take action if they did not change their
perceptions of themselves. He hammered home the idea of racial pride by celebrating the
African past and encouraging African Americans to be proud of their heritage and proud
of the way they looked. Garvey proclaimed "black is beautiful" long before it became
popular in the 1960s. He wanted African Americans to see themselves as members of a
mighty race. "We must canonize our own saints, create our own martyrs, and elevate to
positions of fame and honor black men and women who have made their distinct
contributions to our racial history." He encouraged parents to give their children "dolls
that look like them to play with and cuddle," and he did not want black people thinking of
themselves in a defeatist way. "I am the equal of any white man; I want you to feel the
same way."

Garvey organized his group in a way that made those sentiments visible. He created an
African Legion that dressed in military garb, uniformed marching bands, and other
auxiliary groups such as the Black Cross Nurses.

He was elected in 1920 as provisional President of Africa by the members of the UNIA
and dressed in a military uniform with a plumed hat. At the UNIA's First International
Convention in 1920, people lined the streets of Harlem to watch Garvey and his
followers, dressed in their military outfits, march to their meeting under banners that read
"We Want a Black Civilization" and "Africa Must Be Free." All the pomp brought

52
Garvey ridicule from mainstream African-American leaders, but it also served to inspire
many African Americans who had never seen black people so bold and daring.

While racial pride and unity played important roles in Garvey's black nationalism, he
touted capitalism as the tool that would establish African Americans as an independent
group. His message has been called the evangel of black success, for he believed
economic success was the quickest and most effective way to independence. Interestingly
enough, it was white America that served as a prime example of what blacks could
accomplish. "Until you produce what the white man has produced," he claimed, "you will
not be his equal." In 1919 he established the Negro Factories Corporation and offered
stock for African Americans to buy. He wanted to produce everything that a nation
needed so that African Americans could completely rely on their own efforts. At one
point the corporation operated three grocery stores, two restaurants, a printing plant, a
steam laundry, and owned several buildings and trucks in New York City alone. His most
famous economic venture was a shipping company known as the Black Star Line, a
counterpart to a white-owned company called the White Star Line. Garvey started the
shipping company in 1919 as a way to promote trade but also to transport passengers to
Africa. He believed it could also serve as an important and tangible sign of black success.
However the shipping company eventually failed due to expensive repairs,
mismanagement, and corruption.

With all his talk of a mighty race that would one day rule Africa, it would have been
foolish for Garvey to underestimate the power of religion, particularly Christianity,
within the African-American community. The churches served as the only arena in which
African Americans exercised full control. Not only did they serve as houses of worship
but also as meeting places that dealt with social, economic, and political issues. Pastors
were the most powerful people in the community for they influenced and controlled the
community's most important institution. Garvey knew the important place religion held,
and he worked hard to recruit pastors into his organization. He enjoyed tremendous
success at winning over leaders from almost every denomination. One of those
clergymen, George Alexander McGuire, an Episcopalian, was elected chaplain-general of
the UNIA in 1920. McGuire wrote the UNIA's official liturgy, the "Universal Negro
Ritual" and the "Universal Negro Catechism" that set forth the teachings of the UNIA. He
attempted to shape the UNIA into a Christian black-nationalist organization. Garvey,
however, did not want the organization to take on the trappings of one particular
denomination, for he did not want to offend any of its members. McGuire left UNIA in
1921 to begin his own church, the African Orthodox Church, a black-nationalist neo-
Anglican denomination that kept close ties with the UNIA.

The UNIA meetings at Liberty Hall in Harlem were rich with religious ritual and
language, as Randall Burkett points out in his book Black Redemption: Churchmen Speak
for the Garvey Movement. For even though Garvey rejected McGuire's effort to transform
the UNIA into a black-nationalist Christian denomination, he blended these two traditions
in his message and in the form of his UNIA meetings. A typical meeting followed this
order:

53
  The hymn "Shine On, Eternal Light," written specifically for the UNIA by its
music director
 A reading of Psalm 68:31: "Princes shall come out of Egypt: Ethiopia shall soon
stretch forth her hands unto God."
 The official opening hymn "From Greenland's Icy Mountains," stating a
commitment to the Christianization of Africa
 Recitation of the official motto, "One God! One Aim! One Destiny!"
 "The Lord's Prayer" and other prayers spoken by the chaplain
 A sermon or some brief remarks
 The business meeting
 The closing hymn, either "Onward Christian Soldiers" or the UNIA's national
anthem, the "Universal Negro Anthem."

Garvey's Black Nationalism blended with his Christian outlook rather dramatically when
he claimed that African Americans should view God "through our own spectacles." If
whites could view God as white, then blacks could view God as black. In 1924 the
convention canonized Jesus Christ as a "Black Man of Sorrows" and the Virgin Mary as a
"Black Madonna." Garvey used that image as an inspiration to succeed in this life, for
African Americans needed to worship a God that understood their plight, understood
their suffering, and would help them overcome their present state. Garvey was not
interested in promoting hope in the afterlife. Success in this life was the key. Achieving
economic, cultural, social, and political success would free African Americans in this life.
The afterlife would take care of itself. Perhaps Garvey's greatest genius was taking that
message of material, social, and political success and transforming it into a religious
message, one that could lead to "conversion," one that did not challenge the basic
doctrines of his followers but incorporated them into the whole of his vision. One of
Garvey's top ministers gave witness to the powerful effect of that message when he
claimed in 1920, "I feel that I am a full-fledged minister of the African gospel."

Garvey's message of Black Nationalism and a free black Africa met considerable
resistance from other African-American leaders. W.E.B. DuBois and James Weldon
Johnson of the NAACP, and Chandler Owen and A. Philip Randolph of the publication
Messenger, had their doubts about Garvey. By 1922 his rhetoric shifted away from a
confrontational stance against white America to a position of separatism mixed with just
enough cooperation. He applauded whites who promoted the idea of sending African
Americans back to Africa. He even met with a prominent leader of the Ku Klux Klan in
Atlanta in 1922 to discuss their views on miscegenation and social equality. That meeting
only gave more fuel to his critics. In 1924 DuBois claimed that "Marcus Garvey is the
most dangerous enemy of the Negro race in America and in the world." Owen and
Randolph, whose paper saw the race issue as one of class more than skin color, called
Garvey the "messenger boy of the Klan" and a "Supreme Negro Jamaican jackass" while
labeling his organization the "Uninformed Negroes Infamous Association." The federal
government also took an interest in Garvey and in 1922 indicted him for mail fraud. He
was eventually sentenced to prison and began serving his sentence in 1925. When his
sentence was commuted two years later, Garvey was deported to Jamaica. With his

54
imprisonment and deportation, his organization in the United States lost much of its
momentum. Garvey spent the last years of his life in London and died in 1940.

6. Martin Luther King Jnr (1929-1968)

Synopsis

Martin Luther King Jr. was born on January 15, 1929, in Atlanta, Georgia. King, both a
Baptist minister and civil-rights activist, had a seismic impact on race relations in the
United States, beginning in the mid-1950s. Among many efforts, King headed the SCLC.
Through his activism, he played a pivotal role in ending the legal segregation of African-
American citizens in the South and other areas of the nation, as well as the creation of the
Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. King received the Nobel
Peace Prize in 1964, among several other honors. King was assassinated in April 1968,
and continues to be remembered as one of the most lauded African-American leaders in
history, often referenced by his 1963 speech, "I Have a Dream."

Early Years

Born as Michael King Jr. on January 15, 1929, Martin Luther King Jr. was the middle
child of Michael King Sr. and Alberta Williams King. The King and Williams families
were rooted in rural Georgia. Martin Jr.'s grandfather, A.D. Williams, was a rural
minister for years and then moved to Atlanta in 1893. He took over the small, struggling
Ebenezer Baptist church with around 13 members and made it into a forceful
congregation. He married Jennie Celeste Parks and they had one child that survived,
Alberta. Michael King Sr. came from a sharecropper family in a poor farming
community. He married Alberta in 1926 after an eight-year courtship. The newlyweds
moved to A.D. Williams home in Atlanta.

Michael King Sr. stepped in as pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church upon the death of his
father-in-law in 1931. He too became a successful minister, and adopted the name Martin
Luther King Sr. in honor of the German Protestant religious leader Martin Luther. In due
time, Michael Jr. would follow his father's lead and adopt the name himself.

Young Martin had an older sister, Willie Christine, and a younger brother, Alfred Daniel
Williams King. The King children grew up in a secure and loving environment. Martin
Sr. was more the disciplinarian, while his wife's gentleness easily balanced out the
father's more strict hand. Though they undoubtedly tried, Martin Jr.’s parents couldn’t
shield him completely from racism. Martin Luther King Sr. fought against racial
prejudice, not just because his race suffered, but because he considered racism and
segregation to be an affront to God's will. He strongly discouraged any sense of class
superiority in his children which left a lasting impression on Martin Jr.

55
Growing up in Atlanta, Georgia, Martin Luther King Jr. entered public school at age 5. In
May, 1936 he was baptized, but the event made little impression on him. In May, 1941,
Martin was 12 years old when is grandmother, Jennie, died of a heart attack. The event
was traumatic for Martin, more so because he was out watching a parade against his
parents' wishes when she died. Distraught at the news, young Martin jumped from a
second story window at the family home, allegedly attempting suicide.

King attended Booker T. Washington High School, where he was said to be a precocious
student. He skipped both the ninth and eleventh grades, and entered Morehouse College
in Atlanta at age 15, in 1944. He was a popular student, especially with his female
classmates, but an unmotivated student who floated though his first two years. Although
his family was deeply involved in the church and worship, young Martin questioned
religion in general and felt uncomfortable with overly emotional displays of religious
worship. This discomfort continued through much of his adolescence, initially leading
him to decide against entering the ministry, much to his father's dismay. But in his junior
year, Martin took a Bible class, renewed his faith and began to envision a career in the
ministry. In the fall of his senior year, he told his father of his decision.

Education and Spiritual Growth

In 1948, Martin Luther King Jr. earned a sociology degree from Morehouse College and
attended the liberal Crozer Theological Seminary in Chester, Pennsylvania. He thrived in
all his studies, and was valedictorian of his class in 1951, and elected student body
president. He also earned a fellowship for graduate study. But Martin also rebelled
against his father’s more conservative influence by drinking beer and playing pool while
at college. He became involved with a white woman and went through a difficult time
before he could break off the affair.

During his last year in seminary, Martin Luther King Jr. came under the guidance of
Morehouse College President Benjamin E. Mays who influenced King’s spiritual
development. Mays was an outspoken advocate for racial equality and encouraged King
to view Christianity as a potential force for social change. After being accepted at several
colleges for his doctoral study, including Yale and Edinburgh in Scotland, King enrolled
in Boston University.

During the work on this doctorate, Martin Luther King Jr. met Coretta Scott, an aspiring
singer and musician, at the New England Conservatory School in Boston. They were
married in June 1953 and had four children, Yolanda, Martin Luther King III, Dexter
Scott and Bernice. In 1954, while still working on his dissertation, King became pastor of
the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church of Montgomery, Alabama. He completed his Ph.D.
and was award his degree in 1955. King was only 25 years old.

Montgomery Bus Boycott

On March 2, 1955, a 15-year-old girl refused to give up her seat to a white man on a
Montgomery city bus in violation of local law. Claudette Colvin was arrested and taken

56
to jail. At first, the local chapter of the NAACP felt they had an excellent test case to
challenge Montgomery's segregated bus policy. But then it was revealed that she was
pregnant and civil rights leaders feared this would scandalize the deeply religious black
community and make Colvin (and, thus the group's efforts) less credible in the eyes of
sympathetic whites.

On December 1, 1955, they got another chance to make their case. That evening, 42-year-
old Rosa Parks boarded the Cleveland Avenue bus to go home from an exhausting day at
work. She sat in the first row of the "colored" section in the middle of the bus. As the bus
traveled its route, all the seats it the white section filled up, then several more white
passengers boarded the bus. The bus driver noted that there were several white men
standing and demanded that Parks and several other African Americans give up their
seats. Three other African American passengers reluctantly gave up their places, but
Parks remained seated. The driver asked her again to give up her seat and again she
refused. Parks was arrested and booked for violating the Montgomery City Code. At her
trial a week later, in a 30-minute hearing, Parks was found guilty and fined $10 and
assessed $4 court fee.

On the night that Rosa Parks was arrested, E.D. Nixon, head of the local NAACP chapter
met with Martin Luther King Jr. and other local civil rights leaders to plan a citywide bus
boycott. King was elected to lead the boycott because he was young, well-trained with
solid family connections and had professional standing. But he was also new to the
community and had few enemies, so it was felt he would have strong credibility with the
black community.

In his first speech as the group's president, King declared, "We have no alternative but to
protest. For many years we have shown an amazing patience. We have sometimes given
our white brothers the feeling that we liked the way we were being treated. But we come
here tonight to be saved from that patience that makes us patient with anything less than
freedom and justice."

Martin Luther King Jr.'s fresh and skillful rhetoric put a new energy into the civil rights
struggle in Alabama. The bus boycott would be 382 days of walking to work, harassment,
violence and intimidation for the Montgomery's African-American community. Both
King's and E.D. Nixon's homes were attacked. But the African-American community also
took legal action against the city ordinance arguing that it was unconstitutional based on
the Supreme Court's "separate is never equal" decision in Brown v. Board of Education.
After being defeated in several lower court rulings and suffering large financial losses,
the city of Montgomery lifted the law mandating segregated public transportation.

The Southern Christian Leadership Conference

Flush with victory, African-American civil rights leaders recognized the need for a
national organization to help coordinate their efforts. In January 1957, Martin Luther
King Jr., Ralph Abernathy, and 60 ministers and civil rights activists founded the
Southern Christian Leadership Conference to harness the moral authority and organizing

57
power of black churches. They would help conduct non-violent protests to promote civil
rights reform. King's participation in the organization gave him a base of operation
throughout the South, as well as a national platform. The organization felt the best place
to start to give African Americans a voice was to enfranchise them in the voting process.
In February 1958, the SCLC sponsored more than 20 mass meetings in key southern
cities to register black voters in the South. King met with religious and civil rights leaders
and lectured all over the country on race-related issues.

In 1959, with the help of the American Friends Service Committee, and inspired by
Gandhi's success with non-violent activism, Martin Luther King visited Gandhi's
birthplace in India. The trip affected him in a deeply profound way, increasing his
commitment to America's civil rights struggle. African-American civil rights activist
Bayard Rustin, who had studied Gandhi's teachings, became one of King's associates and
counseled him to dedicate himself to the principles of non-violence. Rustin served as
King's mentor and advisor throughout his early activism and was the main organizer of
the 1963 March on Washington. But Rustin was also a controversial figure at the time,
being a homosexual with alleged ties to the Communist Party, USA. Though his counsel
was invaluable to King, many of his other supporters urged him to distance himself from
Rustin.

In February 1960, a group of African-American students began what became known as

the "sit-in" movement in Greensboro, North Carolina. The students would sit at racially
segregated lunch counters in the city's stores. When asked to leave or sit in the colored
section, they just remained seated, subjecting themselves to verbal and sometimes
physical abuse. The movement quickly gained traction in several other cities. In April
1960, the SCLC held a conference at Shaw University in Raleigh, North Carolina with
local sit-in leaders. Martin Luther King Jr. encouraged students to continue to use
nonviolent methods during their protests. Out of this meeting, the Student Nonviolent
Coordinating Committee formed and for a time, worked closely with the SCLC. By
August of 1960, the sit-ins had been successful in ending segregation at lunch counters in
27 southern cities.

By 1960, Martin Luther King Jr. was gaining national notoriety. He returned to Atlanta to
become co-pastor with his father at Ebenezer Baptist Church, but also continued his civil
rights efforts. On October 19, 1960, King and 75 students entered a local department
store and requested lunch-counter service but were denied. When they refused to leave
the counter area, King and 36 others were arrested. Realizing the incident would hurt the
city's reputation, Atlanta's mayor negotiated a truce and charges were eventually dropped.
But soon after, King was imprisoned for violating his probation on a traffic conviction.
The news of his imprisonment entered the 1960 presidential campaign, when candidate
John F. Kennedy made a phone call to Coretta Scott King. Kennedy expressed his
concern for King's harsh treatment for the traffic ticket and political pressure was quickly
set in motion. King was soon released.

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'I Have a Dream'

In the spring of 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. organized a demonstration in downtown
Birmingham, Alabama. Entire families attended. City police turned dogs and fire hoses
on demonstrators. Martin Luther King was jailed along with large numbers of his
supporters, but the event drew nationwide attention. However, King was personally
criticized by black and white clergy alike for taking risks and endangering the children
who attended the demonstration. From the jail in Birmingham, King eloquently spelled
out his theory of non-violence: "Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and
foster such a tension that a community, which has constantly refused to negotiate, is
forced to confront the issue."

By the end of the Birmingham campaign, Martin Luther King Jr. and his supporters were
making plans for a massive demonstration on the nation's capital composed of multiple
organizations, all asking for peaceful change. On August 28, 1963, the historic March on
Washington drew more than 200,000 people in the shadow of the Lincoln Memorial. It
was here that King made his famous "I Have a Dream" speech, emphasizing his belief
that someday all men could be brothers.

"I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be
judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character." — Martin Luther
King, Jr. / "I Have A Dream" speech, August 28, 1963

The rising tide of civil rights agitation produced a strong effect on public opinion. Many
people in cities not experiencing racial tension began to question the nation's Jim Crow
laws and the near century second class treatment of African-American citizens. This
resulted in the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 authorizing the federal
government to enforce desegregation of public accommodations and outlawing
discrimination in publicly owned facilities. This also led to Martin Luther King receiving
the Nobel Peace Prize for 1964.

King's struggle continued throughout the 1960s. Often, it seemed as though the pattern of
progress was two steps forward and one step back. On March 7, 1965, a civil rights
march, planned from Selma to Alabama's capital in Montgomery, turned violent as police
with nightsticks and tear gas met the demonstrators as they tried to cross the Edmond
Pettus Bridge. King was not in the march, however the attack was televised showing
horrifying images of marchers being bloodied and severely injured. Seventeen
demonstrators were hospitalized leading to the naming the event "Bloody Sunday." A
second march was cancelled due to a restraining order to prevent the march from taking
place. A third march was planned and this time King made sure he was on it. Not wanting
to alienate southern judges by violating the restraining order, a different tact was taken.
On March 9, 1965, a procession of 2,500 marchers, both black and white, set out once
again to cross the Pettus Bridge and confronted barricades and state troopers. Instead of
forcing a confrontation, King led his followers to kneel in prayer and they then turned
back. The event caused King the loss of support among some younger African-American

59
leaders, but it nonetheless aroused support for the passage of the Voting Rights Act of
1965.

From late 1965 through 1967, Martin Luther King Jr. expanded his Civil Rights
Movement into other larger American cities, including Chicago and Los Angeles. But he
met with increasing criticism and public challenges from young black-power leaders.
King's patient, non-violent approach and appeal to white middle-class citizens alienated
many black militants who considered his methods too weak and too late. In the eyes of
the sharp-tongued, blue jean young urban black, King's manner was irresponsibly passive
and deemed non-effective. To address this criticism King began making a link between
discrimination and poverty. He expanded his civil rights efforts to the Vietnam War. He
felt that America's involvement in Vietnam was politically untenable and the
government's conduct of the war discriminatory to the poor. He sought to broaden his
base by forming a multi-race coalition to address economic and unemployment problems
of all disadvantaged people.

Assassination and Legacy

By 1968, the years of demonstrations and confrontations were beginning to wear on

Martin Luther King Jr. He had grown tired of marches, going to jail, and living under the
constant threat of death. He was becoming discouraged at the slow progress civil rights in
America and the increasing criticism from other African-American leaders. Plans were in
the works for another march on Washington to revive his movement and bring attention
to a widening range of issues. In the spring of 1968, a labor strike by Memphis sanitation
workers drew King to one last crusade. On April 3, in what proved to be an eerily
prophetic speech, he told supporters, "I've seen the promised land. I may not get there
with you. But I want you to know tonight that we, as a people, will get to the promised
land." The next day, while standing on a balcony outside his room at the Lorraine Motel,
Martin Luther King Jr. was struck by a sniper's bullet. The shooter, a malcontent drifter
and former convict named James Earl Ray, was eventually apprehended after a two-
month, international manhunt. The killing sparked riots and demonstrations in more than
100 cities across the country. In 1969, Ray pleaded guilty to assassinating King and was
sentenced to 99 years in prison. He died in prison on April 23, 1998.

Martin Luther King Jr.'s life had a seismic impact on race relations in the United States.
Years after his death, he is the most widely known African-American leader of his era.
His life and work have been honored with a national holiday, schools and public
buildings named after him, and a memorial on Independence Mall in Washington, D.C.
But his life remains controversial as well. In the 1970s, FBI files, released under the
Freedom of Information Act, revealed that he was under government surveillance, and
suggested his involvement in adulterous relationships and communist influences. Over
the years, extensive archival studies have led to a more balanced and comprehensive
assessment of his life, portraying him as a complex figure: flawed, fallible and limited in
his control over the mass movements with which he was associated, yet a visionary
leader who was deeply committed to achieving social justice through nonviolent means.

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 7. Malcolm X(1925- 1965)

Synopsis

Born on May 19, 1925, in Omaha, Nebraska, Malcolm X was a prominent black
nationalist leader who served as a spokesman for the Nation of Islam during the 1950s
and '60s. Due largely to his efforts, the Nation of Islam grew from a mere 400 members
at the time he was released from prison in 1952 to 40,000 members by 1960. Articulate,
passionate and a naturally gifted and inspirational orator, Malcolm X exhorted blacks to
cast off the shackles of racism "by any means necessary," including violence. The fiery
civil rights leader broke with the group shortly before his assassination, February 21,
1965, at the Audubon Ballroom in Manhattan, where he had been preparing to deliver a
speech.

Early Life

Malcolm X was born Malcolm Little on May 19, 1925, in Omaha, Nebraska. Malcolm
was the fourth of eight children born to Louise, a homemaker, and Earl Little, a preacher
who was also an active member of the local chapter of the Universal Negro Improvement
Association and avid supporter of black nationalist leader Marcus Garvey. Due to Earl
Little's civil rights activism, the family faced frequent harassment from white supremacist
groups such as the Ku Klux Klan and one of its splinter factions, the Black Legion. In
fact, Malcolm X had his first encounter with racism before he was even born.

"When my mother was pregnant with me, she told me later, 'a party of hooded Ku Klux
Klan riders galloped up to our home,'" Malcolm later remembered. "Brandishing their
shotguns and rifles, they shouted for my father to come out." The harassment continued;
when Malcolm X was four years old, local Klan members smashed all of the family's
windows, causing Earl Little to decide to move the family from Omaha to East Lansing,
Michigan.

However, the racism the family encountered in East Lansing proved even greater than in
Omaha. Shortly after the Littles moved in, in 1929, a racist mob set their house on fire,
and the town's all-white emergency responders refused to do anything. "The white police
and firemen came and stood around watching as the house burned to the ground,"
Malcolm X later remembered.

Two years later, in 1931, things got much, much worse. Earl Little's dead body was
discovered laid out on the municipal streetcar tracks. Although Malcolm X's father was
very likely murdered by white supremacists, from whom he had received frequent death
threats, the police officially ruled his death a suicide, thereby voiding the large life
insurance policy he had purchased in order to provide for his family in the event of his
death. Malcolm X's mother never recovered from the shock and grief of her husband's
death. In 1937, she was committed to a mental institution and Malcolm X left home to
live with family friends.

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Troubled Youth

Malcolm X attended West Junior High School, where he was the school's only black
student. He excelled academically and was well liked by his classmates, who elected him
class president. However, he later said that he felt that his classmates treated him more
like the class pet than a human being. The turning point in Malcolm X's childhood came
in 1939, when his English teacher asked him what he wanted to be when he grew up and
he answered that he wanted to be a lawyer. His teacher responded, "One of life's first
needs is for us to be realistic ... you need to think of something you can be ... why don't
you plan on carpentry?" Having thus been told in no uncertain terms that there was no
point in a black child pursuing education, Malcolm X dropped out of school the
following year, at the age of 15.

After quitting school, Malcolm X moved to Boston to live with his older half-sister, Ella,
about whom he later recalled, "She was the first really proud black woman I had ever
seen in my life. She was plainly proud of her very dark skin. This was unheard of among
Negroes in those days." Ella landed Malcolm a job shining shoes at the Roseland
Ballroom. However, out on his own on the streets of Boston, Malcolm X became
acquainted with the city's criminal underground, soon turning to selling drugs. He got
another job as kitchen help on the Yankee Clipper train between New York and Boston
and fell further into a life of drugs and crime. Sporting flamboyant pinstriped zoot suits,
he frequented nightclubs and dance halls and turned more fully to crime to finance his
lavish lifestyle. This phase of Malcolm X's life came to a screeching halt in 1946, when
he was arrested on charges of larceny and sentenced to ten years in jail.

To pass the time during his incarceration, Malcolm X read constantly, devouring books
from the prison library in an attempt make up for the years of education he had missed by
dropping out of high school. Also while in prison, he was visited by several siblings who
had joined to the Nation of Islam, a small sect of black Muslims who embraced the
ideology of black nationalism—the idea that in order to secure freedom, justice and
equality, black Americans needed to establish their own state entirely separate from white
Americans. Malcolm X converted to the Nation of Islam while in prison, and upon his
release in 1952 he abandoned his surname "Little," which he considered a relic of
slavery, in favor of the surname "X"—a tribute to the unknown name of his African
ancestors.

Nation of Islam

Now a free man, Malcolm X traveled to Detroit, Michigan, where he worked with the
leader of the Nation of Islam, Elijah Muhammad, to expand the movement's following
among black Americans nationwide. Malcolm X became the minister of Temple No. 7 in
Harlem and Temple No. 11 in Boston, while also founding new temples in Harford and
Philadelphia. In 1960, he established a national newspaper, Muhammad Speaks, in order
to further promote the message of the Nation of Islam.

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Articulate, passionate and a naturally gifted and inspirational orator, Malcolm X exhorted
blacks to cast off the shackles of racism "by any means necessary," including violence.
"You don't have a peaceful revolution," he said. "You don't have a turn-the-cheek
revolution. There's no such thing as a nonviolent revolution." Such militant proposals—a
violent revolution to establish an independent black nation—won Malcolm X large
numbers of followers as well as many fierce critics. Due primarily to the efforts of
Malcolm X, the Nation of Islam grew from a mere 400 members at the time he was
released from prison in 1952, to 40,000 members by 1960.

By the early 1960s, Malcolm X had emerged as a leading voice of a radicalized wing of
the Civil Rights Movement, presenting an alternative to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s
vision of a racially integrated society achieved by peaceful means. Dr. King was highly
critical of what he viewed as Malcolm X's destructive demagoguery. "I feel that Malcolm
has done himself and our people a great disservice," King once said.

Break with Elijah Muhammad

Philosophical differences with King were one thing; a rupture with Elijah Muhammad
proved much more traumatic. In 1963, Malcolm X became deeply disillusioned when he
learned that his hero and mentor had violated many of his own teachings, most flagrantly
by carrying on many extramarital affairs; Muhammad had, in fact, fathered several
children out of wedlock. Malcolm's feelings of betrayal, combined with Muhammad's
anger over Malcolm's insensitive comments regarding the assassination of President John
F. Kennedy, led Malcolm X to leave the Nation of Islam in 1964.

That same year, Malcolm X embarked on an extended trip through North Africa and the
Middle East. The journey proved to be both a political and spiritual turning point in his
life. He learned to place the American Civil Rights Movement within the context of a
global anti-colonial struggle, embracing socialism and pan-Africanism. Malcolm X also
made the Hajj, the traditional Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, during which
he converted to traditional Islam and again changed his name, this time to El-Hajj Malik
El-Shabazz.

After his epiphany at Mecca, Malcolm X returned to the United States less angry and
more optimistic about the prospects for peaceful resolution to America's race problems.
"The true brotherhood I had seen had influenced me to recognize that anger can blind
human vision," he said. "America is the first country ... that can actually have a bloodless
revolution." Tragically, just as Malcolm X appeared to be embarking on an ideological
transformation with the potential to dramatically alter the course of the Civil Rights
Movement, he was assassinated.

Death and Legacy

On the evening of February 21, 1965, at the Audubon Ballroom in Manhattan, where
Malcolm X was about to deliver a speech, three gunmen rushed the stage and shot him 15
times at point blank range. Malcolm X was pronounced dead on arrival at Columbia

63
Presbyterian Hospital shortly thereafter. He was 39 years old. The three men convicted of
the assassination of Malcolm X were all members of the Nation of Islam: Talmadge
Hayer, Norman 3X Butler and Thomas 15X Johnson.

In the immediate aftermath of Malcolm X's death, commentators largely ignored his
recent spiritual and political transformation and criticized him as a violent rabble-rouser.
However, Malcolm X's legacy as a civil rights hero was cemented by the posthumous
publication in 1965 of The Autobiography of Malcolm X: As Told to Alex Haley. At once
a harrowing chronicle of American racism, an unsparing self-criticism and an inspiring
spiritual journey, the book, transcribed by the acclaimed author of Roots, instantly recast
Malcolm X as one of the great political and spiritual leaders of modern times. Named by
TIME magazine one of 10 "required reading" non-fiction books of all-time, The
Autobiography of Malcolm X has truly enshrined Malcolm X as a hero to subsequent
generations of radicals and activists.

Perhaps Malcolm X's greatest contribution to society was underscoring the value of a
truly free populace by demonstrating the great lengths to which human beings will go to
secure their freedom. "Power in defense of freedom is greater than power in behalf of
tyranny and oppression," he stated. "Because power, real power, comes from our
conviction which produces action, uncompromising action."

Personal Life

In 1958, Malcolm X married Betty Sanders, a fellow member of the Nation of Islam. The
couple had six children together, all daughters: Attallah (b. 1958), Qubilah (b. 1960),
Ilyasah (b. 1963), Gamilah (b. 1964) and twins Malaak and Malikah (b. 1965). Sanders
later became known as Betty Shabazz, and she became a prominent civil rights and
human rights activist in her own right in the aftermath of her husband's death.

In May 2013, Malcolm X's grandson, Malcolm Shabazz—son of the civil rights leader's
second daughter with wife Betty Shabazz, Qubilah Shabazz—was beaten to death in
Mexico City, near the Plaza Garibaldi. He was 28 years old. According to a report by the
Los Angeles Times, police believe Malcolm Shabazz's death was the result of a "robbery
gone wrong.

TOPIC 10: The Rise of the USA as an industrial and economic power
in the 1870s to 1914.
Questions
 What were the major factors that contributed to the transformation of the USA
into a major economic power by the end of the 19 th century? We can observe

64
 these from the country’s domestic and foreign policies.
 Discuss the key aspects of the USA foreign policy in the late 19th century up to the
outbreak of WW I in 1914.

Introduction

 The United States underwent an economic transformation marked by the maturing

of the industrial economy, the rapid expansion of big business, the development
of large-scale agriculture, and the rise of national labor unions and industrial
conflict from the era of Reconstruction to the end of the 19th century,
 There was an outburst of technological innovation at this time which fuelled this
headlong economic growth. However, the accompanying rise of the American
corporation and the advent of big business resulted in a concentration of the
nation's productive capacities in fewer and fewer hands. Mechanization in
farming brought about an increase of food production in the United States which
made them world's premier food producer.
 The white Americans' hunger for land continued unabated, which led to wars
against the Native Americans of the Plains and the "second great removal" of
indigenous peoples from their ancient homelands. Despite the growth and
development there was surge in immigration and urbanization after the Civil War.
There was transition in America, more immigrants arrived from southern and
Eastern Europe, from Asia, Mexico, and Central America, were creating a new
American mosaic.
 What many thought of as progress, however, others regarded with apprehension.
Agricultural modernization disrupted family farms, for example, provoking the
country's farmers to organize protest movements as never before. And the social
problems that accompanied the nation's industrial development fuelled the rise of
national labor unions and unprecedented clashes between capital and labor. This
discontent captured the attention of reformers and politicians who began to
challenge traditional party politics through third-party movements. The following
factors will help us to understand this better as outlined below.

Monroe doctrine an assertive foreign policy

On this day in 1823, President James Monroe delivers his annual message to Congress
and calls for a bold new approach to American foreign policy that eventually became
known as the “Monroe Doctrine.” Monroe told Congress, and the world’s empires, that
“the American continents are henceforth not to be considered as subjects for further
colonization by any European powers.” This policy was invoked and adapted by
subsequent presidents to advance American economic and political interests in the
Western Hemisphere.

Monroe’s declaration, which was drafted by Secretary of State John Quincy Adams–who
would succeed Monroe as president in 1824–was aimed at preventing attempts by other
nations to colonize territory on the North and South American continents that had not yet

65
been claimed by Europeans. Although the U.S. population was at the time concentrated
east of the Mississippi River, expansion into the western half of the continent was
foremost in the minds of many American politicians, including Monroe and his
predecessor Thomas Jefferson. Monroe and Adams were also concerned that the British,
French and Russians would attempt to annex regions once held by the Spanish (such as
the Southwest, Central and South America and the Northern Pacific)–places over which
the U.S. itself hoped to extend control.

Monroe did not actively seek to add territory to the United States, but some of his
successors, including James Polk and Theodore Roosevelt, used the Monroe Doctrine to
justify the annexation of new lands into the Union. Under its auspices, President James
Polk took the land (via the Mexican-American War in 1846-48) that now makes up
Texas. Later, Theodore Roosevelt tailored Monroe’s philosophy to establish a strong
American presence in Central America, the Philippines and the Caribbean.

The policy of Manifest destiny

The USA was able to acquire new lands and resources especially west of River
Mississippi which made the country richer.

Manifest Destiny is a term for the attitude prevalent during the 19th century period of
American expansion that the United States not only could, but was destined to, stretch
from coast to coast. This attitude helped fuel western settlement, Native American
removal and war with Mexico. The phrase was first employed by John L. O’Sullivan in
an article on the annexation of Texas published in the July-August 1845 edition of the
United States Magazine and Democratic Review, which he edited

The term manifest destiny originated in the 1840s. It expressed the belief that it was
Anglo-Saxon Americans’ providential mission to expand their civilization and
institutions across the breadth of North America. This expansion would involve not
merely territorial aggrandizement but the progress of liberty and individual economic
opportunity as well.

It was, O’Sullivan claimed, ‘our manifest destiny to overspread the continent allotted by
Providence for the free development of our yearly multiplying millions.’ The term and
the concept were taken up by those desiring to secure Oregon Territory, California,
Mexican land in the Southwest, and, in the 1850s, Cuba. Originally a partisan Democratic
issue, ‘manifest destiny’ gained Republican adherents as time passed. By the end of the
century, expansionists were employing quasi-Darwinist reasoning to argue that because
its ‘Anglo-Saxon heritage’ made America supremely fit, it had become the nation’s
‘manifest destiny’ to extend its influence beyond its continental boundaries into the
Pacific and Caribbean basins. (Foner and Garraty, 1991)

The unity and patriotism and resulted from the civil war.

The War to Prevent Southern Independence did bring America together, though not at
once. Before the War, there were two dominant and competing social systems in the US:

66
industrialism and seigneurialism (Seigneurs derived their wealth from use of the land,
such as plantation agriculture and livestock grazing). Each system was dominated by a
wealthy class of men; under each system, the middle class and the masses who were
dependent upon that system, developed social and political views which were compatible
with it; that is to say, each system influenced the views of the people who lived under
it.)

The War destroyed seigneurialsim and gave industrialism exclusive hegemony. Under
industrialism, tax structures, laws and business regulations have gradually evolved to
limit farming to only so much as is necessary to support industrialism, with all farmers
excess to that need forced out of business and into the ranks of factory labor. (The more
laborers seeking a job in a factory, the lower the wages that must be paid by the
industrialists.) It is now so difficult for someone to have a farm just for the support of his
own family and for a place for his children to grow up, that almost no one does this
anymore in the US, and millions of acres of US farm land are sitting idle. Thus,
Americans all over the US are more alike in that more of them in every section work in
factories.

And the middle class occupations (such as bank managers, lawyers, engineers) that
support whatever social system is hegemonic, are now influenced by only one social
system, industrialism, so that members of the middle class all over the US are made more
alike in their social and political views

The impact of the reconstruction projects on the economy. This led to rapid
development of industries (1870-1900)

From the era of Reconstruction to the end of the 19th century, the United States
underwent an economic transformation marked by the maturing of the industrial
economy, the rapid expansion of big business, the development of large-scale agriculture,
and the rise of national labor unions and industrial conflicts
An outburst of technological innovation in the late 19th century fueled this headlong
economic growth. However, the accompanying rise of the American corporation and the
advent of big business resulted in a concentration of the nation's productive capacities in
fewer and fewer hands. Mechanization brought farming into the realm of big business as
well, making the United States the world's premier food producer--a position it has never
surrendered. But still the land hunger of white Americans continued unabated. This led to
wars against the Native Americans of the Plains and the "second great removal" of
indigenous peoples from their ancient homelands.
Indispensable to this growth and development were an unprecedented surge in
immigration and urbanization after the Civil War. American society was in transition.
Immigrants arriving from southern and Eastern Europe, from Asia, Mexico, and Central
America, were creating a new American mosaic. And the power of Anglo-Saxon
Protestants--once so dominant--began to wane. What many thought of as progress,
however, others regarded with apprehension. Agricultural modernization disrupted family
farms, for example, provoking the country's farmers to organize protest movements as
never before. And the social problems that accompanied the nation's industrial

67
development fueled the rise of national labor unions and unprecedented clashes between
capital and labor. This discontent captured the attention of reformers and politicians who
began to challenge traditional party politics through third-party movements

The implementation of the constitution. The constitution upheld democratic

principles and freedoms.

It was 11 years after the Declaration of Independence—and four years after American
victory in the Revolutionary War—when a small group of delegates convened in
Philadelphia to create a new charter for governing the young nation. The result was the
longest lasting, most successful, most enviable, and most imitated constitution man has
ever known. The United States Constitution has secured an unprecedented degree of
human freedom, upholding the rule of law, securing the blessings of liberty, and
providing the framework for the people of America to build a great, prosperous, and just
nation unlike any other in the world.

George Washington thought that it was “little short of a miracle” that the delegates could
agree on the Constitution. Americans had stumbled on this road before. The United States
had established an earlier constitution in 1781, the Articles of Confederation. Under the
Articles, each state governed itself through elected representatives, and the state
representatives in turn elected a weak central government, one so feeble that it was
unworkable. This league of states, hastily crafted during wartime, had to be replaced with
a real government.

The challenge was devising stable institutional arrangements that would reconcile
majority rule and minority rights, that is, reflect the consent of the governed but avoid
majority tyranny. The new constitution would need to secure the rights promised in the
Declaration of Independence and do so through a republican form of government. The
founders responded with a written Constitution that created a strong government of
limited powers, with the then-novel institutions of the separation of powers and
federalism.

The rapid industrialization of the country produces more wealth.

The industrialization made the country to grow faster than it ever had, bringing about
great shifts: The shift was from a largely homogeneous population of Western European
immigrants into a more heterogeneous population. It changed from an agricultural
economy to an industrial economy. This was from a predominately rural society to a
predominately urban society; and from an isolated nation that was economically
dependent upon European capital and manufactured goods to an international nation that
became a major industrial, financial, and trading power.

Open migration policy especially from Europe. These brought resources and wealth.
U.S. immigration policy has historically passed through three major phases: laissez-faire
or few limits on arrivals; qualitative restrictions, which did not limit the number of
immigrant arrivals but excluded certain types of persons, such as communists and

68
Chinese; and quantitative restrictions, which included numerical limits as well as
qualitative restrictions.

Laissez-Faire: 1780–1875

During its first hundred years, the United States had a laissez-faire or open borders policy
that allowed immigrants into the United States without restriction. At the time of the
American Revolution, most colonists wanted more immigrants to help develop North
America. In fact, one of the crimes imputed to George III by the Declaration of
Independence was “Obstructing the Laws for the Naturalization of Foreigners” and
“Refusing to encourage their Migration hither.” Indeed, people in the United States,
from the federal government to states, private employers, shipping companies, railroads,
and churches, encouraged immigration. For example, federal and state governments
encouraged immigration through railroad and canal construction subsidies because the
companies that built the railroads and canals needed to hire laborers, who were most
easily found in Ireland and Germany. Federal and state militias enlisted foreigners—
immigrants represented a third of the regular soldiers in the U.S. army in the 1840s.

Immigrants were generally welcomed in the late 1700s and early 1800s. Although there
were fears, especially in the Federalist Party, that immigrants might alter the culture and
customs of the United States, the match between Europeans seeking opportunity and an
America in need of people left the immigration door wide open. The Naturalization Act
of 1790 established the principle that an immigrant could acquire citizenship relatively
easily. Between 1783 and 1820, an estimated 250,000 immigrants came to America.
After 1820, ship captains had to report on the immigrants they brought to the United
States, and since then, 67 million immigrants have been admitted to the United States.

Immigration increased in the 1830s, but most were from Great Britain and Germany, and
most were Protestants. The first major anti-immigrant reaction arose after the influx of
Roman Catholic immigrants in the 1840s. The “Know-Nothing” movement, embodied by
the American Party, included Protestant clergymen, journalists, and other opinion leaders
who formed the Order of the Star-Spangled Banner. While they urged the restriction of
immigrants from non-Anglo-Saxon countries, members of the Know-Nothing movement
were instructed to answer any inquiries about the Order with the words “I know nothing
about it.” The American Party had considerable success: it was represented in
northeastern state legislatures, and Know-Nothings won seventy House seats in the
congressional election of 1854. However, Congress did not respond to the anti-immigrant
feeling: one reason in force was the Civil War and reconstruction, which slowed
immigration.

Second Industrial Revolution

The machines of the Industrial Revolution in the 18th and early 19th centuries were
simple, mechanical devices compared with the industrial technology that followed. Many
new products were devised, and important advances were made in the system of mass
production. Changes in industry were so great that the period after 1860 has been called

69
the Second Industrial Revolution. New scientific knowledge was applied to industry as
scientists and engineers unlocked the secrets of physics and chemistry. Great new
industries were founded on this scientific advance: steel, chemicals, and petroleum
benefited from new understandings of chemistry; breakthroughs in the study of electricity
and magnetism provided the basis for a large electrical industry. These new industries
were larger and more productive than any industries existing before. Germany and the
United States became the leaders, and by the end of the 19th century they were
challenging Great Britain in the world market for industrial goods.

The age of electricity began in 1882 when Thomas A. Edison introduced a system of
electric lighting in New York City. Electricity was later applied to driving all kinds of
machinery as well as powering locomotives and streetcars. Electric lighting quickly
spread across the United States and was soon adopted in Europe. The electrical industry
was dominated by large companies that developed new products and then manufactured
and marketed them. These companies were based in Germany and the United States but
sold their goods all over the world. They were the first multinational companies.
Companies like Westinghouse and General Electric helped to electrify cities in Europe,
Africa, and South America.

The steel and chemical industries used new technology that greatly increased production.
The size of factories increased rapidly, employing more workers and using more
machinery. These industries integrated all stages of production under a single corporate
structure. They bought out competitors and acquired sources of raw materials and retail
outlets. Corporations such as U.S. Steel and Standard Oil controlled all stages of
manufacturing the product, from mining and drilling to delivering it to the customer. This
gave them great economic power, and the United States government took measures to
limit their monopolies in steel and petroleum.

The larger size of business presented great challenges to managers who administered
enormous organizations with many branches and subsidiaries. Advances in
communications and transportation helped decision makers to maintain control. The
electric telegraph was invented by Samuel Morse in 1844 and was used to relay
commercial information about prices and markets. It was used in the stock exchanges and
on the railway systems. Alexander Graham Bell patented his telephone in 1876, and
networks of telephone lines were built quickly across the United States.

The telephone became a useful tool for managers to keep in contact with the widely
dispersed parts of their businesses. New methods of management were devised that
stressed central control, planning, and efficient production methods. One of the leading
advocates of "scientific management" was Frederick Winslow Taylor.

The Second Industrial Revolution marked great progress in the methods of mass
production. More and more industries used interchangeable parts and machine tools.
Electric power replaced steam power in factories; it was cheaper, faster, and more
flexible. It allowed machine tools to be arranged more efficiently. Human power was
replaced by machine power. In 1913 Henry Ford introduced the assembly line in the

70
manufacture of his Model T Ford. Parts were assembled on a moving conveyor belt, and
the Model T took shape as it moved from one work station to the next. The assembly line
greatly increased the speed of manufacture and soon was used in many industries.

By the outbreak of World War I in 1914, only a small number of industries in the most
industrialized nations of the world had adopted advanced production methods and
organization. Much of the world had not yet begun a first industrial revolution. Russia,
Canada, Italy, and Japan were just beginning to industrialize.

Only Great Britain, the United States, Germany, France, and some parts of the
Scandinavian countries had successfully completed an industrial revolution. Most of the
world's population still worked in primitive agricultural economies. China, India, and
Spain did not begin to industrialize until well into the 20th century.

Conclusion
There was investment in technology. An astounding rush of inventions and technological
innovations transformed America and its economy in the late nineteenth century. In the
entire period up to 1860, the government issued 36,000 patents. But 440,000 were issued
in the 30 years between 1860 and 1890. Some of these inventions, such as the
refrigerated railroad car and the cigarette-rolling machine, formed a basis for new
industries and fortunes. Other inventions, such as the typewriter (1867) and adding
machine (1888), mechanized office work and allowed record keeping to keep up with the
flow of products and the hugely expanding volume of sales. The telephone (1876)
revolutionized social and economic life. Even more important were the invention of the
gasoline engine (1878), and the spread of electricity (the light bulb was invented in
1879). This led to the emergence of an entrepreneurial and aggression business class.
Good leadership came into being people were organized and had learned leadership skill.
This led to peace and stability in the country after the civil war because people were busy
and had something to do.

Summary
Q. What were the major factors that contributed to the emergence of the USA as a major
industrial and world power in the aftermath of the civil war?
 The Monroe Doctrine-an assertive foreign policy (read on this)
 The policy of Manifest Destiny: The USA was able to acquire new lands and
resources especially west of River Mississippi which made the country richer.
 The unity and patriotism that resulted from the civil war.
 The impact of the reconstruction projects on the economy. This led to rapid
development of industries etc
 The implementation of the constitution. The constitution upheld democratic
principles and freedoms.
 The rapid industrialization of the country produces more wealth
 Open migration policy especially from Europe. These brought resources and
wealth.
 Investment in technology

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  Emergence of an entrepreneurial and aggression business class.
 Good leadership
 Peace and stability in the country after the civil war.

TOPIC 11: THE USA AND WORLD WAR I

Background and Summary

The United States in World War I declared war on the German Empire on April 6,
1917. The U.S. was an independent power and did not officially join the Allies. It closely
cooperated with them militarily but acted alone in diplomacy. The U.S. made its major
contributions in terms of supplies, raw material and money starting in 1917. American
soldiers under General John J. Pershing arrived in large numbers on the Western Front in
summer 1918. They played a major role until victory was achieved on November 11,
1918. Before entering the war, the U.S had remained neutral, though it had been an
important supplier to Great Britain and other Allied powers. During the war, the U.S
mobilized over 4,000,000 military personnel and suffered 110,000 deaths, including
43,000 due to the influenza pandemic. The war saw a dramatic expansion of the United
States government in an effort to harness the war effort and a significant increase in the
size of the U.S. military. After a slow start in mobilizing the economy and labor force, by
spring 1918 the nation was poised to play a decisive role in the conflict. Under the
leadership of President Woodrow Wilson, the war represented the climax of the
Progressive Movement as it sought to bring reform and democracy to the world.

Why did the USA join WW I?

 When the war began the United States proclaimed a united policy of strict
neutrality in thought and deed. Wilson's goal was to broker a peace and he sent
his top aide Colonel House on repeated missions to the two sides, but each was so
confident of victory that the peace was ignored.
 Historically the USA had pursued a policy of neutrality on global politics and
under its policy of the Monroe Doctrine of the 19 th century the USA was keen to
prevent Europe powers to interfere with its own affairs in the Americas. The USA
wanted to emerge as the undisputed power in the Americas and therefore was not
ready to entertain interference from Europe or any other foreign power.
 Therefore, when WW I broke out in 1914 the USA argued that this was a
European war which will never have any impact on the USA that was divided
from Europe by the Atlantic Ocean. In the eyes of the USA the war was a
continuation of European politics that did not involve her.
 However, when Germany began to threaten USA interests during war American
leaders were forced to change their tactics.
 When a German U-boat sank the British liner Lusitania in 1915, with 128
Americans aboard, Wilson said, "America is too proud to fight," and demanded
an end to attacks on passenger ships. Germany complied. Wilson repeatedly
warned the U.S. would not tolerate unrestricted submarine warfare, in violation of
international law and of human rights.

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  However, Wilson was under pressure from war hawks led by former president
Theodore Roosevelt, who denounced German acts as "piracy". Ultimately,
Wilson realized he needed to enter the war in order to shape the peace; indeed in
1919 he won a League of Nations at the Paris Peace Conference. Wilson's
Secretary of State, William Jennings Bryan, whose pacifist goals were ignored by
Wilson, resigned in frustration. Public opinion was outraged at suspected German
sabotage of Black Tom in Jersey City, New Jersey, and the Kingsland Explosion
in what is now Lyndhurst, New Jersey.

The USA contribution to the War effort

 The entrance of the USA in the war caused a dramatic turn of events in favour of
the allies. The armies of the allied powers led by Britain, France and Russia were
already fatigued by the war in Europe and when the USA joined this not only
increased the morale of the fighting forces but also brought in necessary
resources such as food and weapons and this helped the allies win the war in
1918.
 The home front saw a systematic mobilization of the entire population and the
entire economy to produce the soldiers, food supplies, munitions, and money
needed to win the war. Although the United States entered the war in 1917, there
had been very little planning, or even recognition of the problems that the British
and other Allies had to solve on their home fronts. As a result, the level of
confusion was high in the first 12 months, then efficiency took control.
 The war came in the midst of the Progressive Era, when efficiency and expertise
were highly valued. Therefore, the federal government set up a multitude of
temporary agencies with 500,000 to 1,000,000 new employees to bring together
the expertise necessary to redirect the economy into the production of munitions
and food necessary for the war, as well as for propaganda purposes.
 The most important area of the contribution of the USA in the war effort was in
the provision of clothes, food and other resources to armies and populations in
Europe that were starving during the war.
 Crucial to U.S. participation was the sweeping domestic propaganda campaign
executed by the Committee on Public Information, overseen by George Creel.
The campaign consisted of tens of thousands of government-selected community
leaders giving brief carefully scripted pro-war speeches at thousands of public
gatherings. Along with other branches of government and private vigilante
groups like the American Protective League, it also included the general
repression and harassment of people either opposed to American entry into the
war or of German heritage. Other forms of propaganda included newsreels,
photos, large-print posters (designed by several well-known illustrators of the
day, including Louis D. Fancher and Henry Reuterdahl), magazine and
newspaper articles, and billboards.
 Through propaganda the USA government was able to get support for the war
from the general public and also uplift the spirit of the public in Europe in
support of the war. Among the allies in Europe support for the war was waning
before the entrance of the USA.

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Impact of the war on the USA
 The war contributed to the expansion of the USA military and technology due to
increased recruitment for the war effort. During the war the USA recruited more
than 2.8 million recruits for service and most of these were sent to Europe to help
the allies. At the height of the war in 1918, USA soldiers arrived in Europe at the
rate of 10,000 a day, at a time when the Germans were unable to replace their
losses. Most of the recruits remained in the war after it ended.
 The USA was also compelled to invest more resources in improving its military to
match the armies of the powerful European states such as Germany and UK. The
sinking of the USA military warships by the German submarines was a major
wake up call for the USA to improve its military.
 The USA also made major investments in the production of food especially corn,
wheat and beef for the war effort. After the war the USA emerged as a leading
producer and exporter of corn, beef and wheat products in the world.
 The USA also expanded its industries during the war such as clothes, automobile
etc and this continued at the end of the war.
 The war also saw a shift in the gender roles in the USA domestic front. As more
and more young men joined the war in Europe leadership roles back at home were
taken over by women who also now took over jobs in the factories and other
areas. This led to the emergence of a working class among women in the USA
after the war. Most of these young women were now more liberated and in charge
of their own lives unlike it was the case before the war.
 The USA economy also expanded during the war as the USA now opened up
new markets for her commodities in Europe and other parts of the world. Hence,
after the war the USA now emerged as a major world power, economically and
politically. She was now regarded as a major power in global politics a role that
she will continue to play into the 1920s and after.

Revision Questions:
 What were the major factors that compelled the USA to join WW I in 1917 and
what was the impact of the entrance of the USA into the war?
 What was the impact of WW I on the USA?
 Discuss the impact of WW I on USA foreign policy.

TOPIC 12: THE INTER WAR ERA AND THE GREAT DEPRESSION: 1919-1939

Background
 After WW I much effort was made in the reconstruction of the global economy.
Countries of Europe and especially Germany, Russia, France and the UK were
devastated at the end of the war. The USA was not so much affected by the war.
Infact, the war had created new markets for USA commodities. However, the
economic and social transformation of the mid 1920s was soon swept aside by the
onset of the global depression in the late 1920s.
 The Great Depression was a period of economic recession and other challenges
that begun with the crash of the New Stock exchange in the USA in 1929 and

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 soon the effect of the depression spread to other parts of the world. The
depression caused major losses in jobs and led to poverty across the world. The
global economy began to make a recovery from the mid 1930s but the gains made
were quashed by the coming of WW II in 1945. It was not after WW II that the
USA and global economy made significant recovery.

The Great Depression in the USA

 The USA emerged from WW I better off economically than most countries in
Europe as much of the war was not fought on her soil and in any case she had also
joined the war at its later stages and therefore her economy did not feel the full
impact of the war.
 Indeed during the war the USA economy expanded as new markets of her
products such as clothes, beef, corn, wheat etc found ready market in Europe and
elsewhere.
 USA industrial production also expanded during the war especially in the
manufacture of automobiles and other products that were needed for the war
effort in Europe.
 During the war, employment records rose steadily in the country especially for the
women and the elderly who had not enlisted in the war.
 Hence after the war the USA economy was generally buoyant as a new working
class took shape. This was reflected in the dictum of the “roaring twenties” which
reflected the changed economic fortunes for the USA economy.
 The Roaring Twenties is a term for the 1920s in the Western world. It was a
period of sustained economic prosperity with a distinctive cultural edge in the
United States, Canada, and Western Europe, particularly in major cities such as
New York, Montreal, Chicago, Detroit, Paris, Berlin, London, and Los Angeles.
The period witnessed new innovations especially in the cultural fabric in such
areas as music (rock and roll music) cinema, theatre etc.
 The era saw the large-scale use of automobiles, telephones, motion pictures,
radio, electricity, refrigeration, air conditioning; commercial, passenger, and
freight aviation; unprecedented industrial growth, accelerated consumer demand
and aspirations, plus significant changes in lifestyle and culture. The media
focused on celebrities, especially sports heroes and movie stars, as cities rooted
for their home teams and filled the new palatial cinemas and gigantic sports
stadiums. In most major countries women won the right to vote.
 However, many of these gains were shattered by the late 1920s with the onset of
the Great Depression.
 The Great Depression began in August 1929, when the United States economy
first went into an economic recession. Although the country spent two months
with declining GDP, it was not until the Wall Street Crash in October, 1929 that
the effects of a declining economy were felt, and a major worldwide economic
downturn ensued. The market crash marked the beginning of a decade of high
unemployment, poverty, low profits, deflation, plunging farm incomes, and lost
opportunities for economic growth and personal advancement. Although its
causes are still uncertain and controversial, the net effect was a sudden and
general loss of confidence in the economic future.

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Causes of the Great Depression in the USA
 The usual explanations include numerous factors, especially high consumer debt,
ill-regulated markets that permitted overoptimistic loans by banks and investors,
and the lack of high-growth new industries, all interacting to create a downward
economic spiral of reduced spending, falling confidence, and lowered production.
 Industries that suffered the most included construction, agriculture as dust-bowl
conditions persisted in the agricultural heartland, shipping, mining, and logging
as well as durable goods like automobiles and appliances that could be
postponed. The economy reached bottom in the winter of 1932–33; then came
four years of very rapid growth until 1937, when the Recession of 1937 brought
back 1934 levels of unemployment.

The Response of the USA to the Depression

 The response of the USA to the depression was through unveiling a number of
programs to jump start the economy and end the problems of unemployment and
poverty in the country. These programs were known as the NEW DEAL and
were initiated by presidents Herbert Hoover and Franklin D. Roosevelt who
became American presidents during the depression.
 The programs unveiled by the democratic governments of the time targeted job
creation in the urban areas as well as the transformation of agriculture in the rural
areas through the construction of dams to produce electricity and irrigate more
land as well as the provision of loans and other credit facilities to farmers to
produce more food both for domestic consumption and exports.
 Many of the areas in the plains such as Arkansas, Texas, Missouri and
Oklahoma were hit by dust bowl conditions due to strong winds and desert like
conditions that destroyed crops, farm machinery, soils etc. Hence the government
was forced to come up with projects to control soil erosion so as to revamp
agricultural production.
 One of the flagship projects during the depression was the construction of dams
on the Mississippi river such as the Hoover Dam. This was undertaken through
the Tennessee Valley Authority.

Impact of the Depression on the USA

 The Depression caused major political changes in America. Three years into the
depression, Herbert Hoover lost the 1932 presidential election to Franklin Delano
Roosevelt in a landslide. Roosevelt's economic recovery plan, the New Deal,
instituted unprecedented programs for relief, recovery and reform, and brought
about a major realignment of American politics.
 The Depression also resulted in an increase of emigration of people to other
countries for the first time in American history. For example, some immigrants
went back to their native countries, and some native US citizens went to Canada,
Australia, and South Africa. It also resulted in the mass migration of people from
badly hit areas in the Great Plains and the South to places such as California and

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 the North, respectively. The African American formed the bulk of these
immigrants.
 Racial tensions also increased during this time. By the 1940s immigration had
returned to normal, and emigration declined. A well-known example of an
emigrant was Frank McCourt, who went to Ireland, as recounted in his book
Angela's Ashes.
 The memory of the Depression also shaped modern theories of economics and
resulted in many changes in how the government dealt with economic downturns,
such as the use of stimulus packages, Keynesian economics, and Social Security.
It also shaped modern American literature, resulting in famous novels such as
John Steinbeck's "The Grapes of Wrath" and "Of Mice and Men".

Summary of the impacts of the Depression on the USA in figures

 13 million people became unemployed. In 1932, 34 million people belonged to
families with no regular full-time wage earner.
 Industrial production fell by nearly 45% between 1929 and 1932.
 Homebuilding dropped by 80% between the years 1929 and 1932.
 In the 1920s, the banking system in the U.S. was about $50 billion, which was
about 50% of GDP. From 1929 to 1932; about 5,000 banks went out of business.
By 1933, 11,000 of the US' 25,000 banks had failed.
 Between 1929 and 1933, U.S. GDP fell around 30%, the stock market lost almost
90% of its value.
 In 1929, the unemployment rate averaged 3%. In 1933, 25% of all workers and
37% of all non farm workers were unemployed. In Cleveland, the unemployment
rate was 50%; in Toledo, Ohio, 80%. One Soviet trading corporation in New York
averaged 350 applications a day from Americans seeking jobs in the Soviet
Union.
 Over one million families lost their farms between 1930 and 1934.
 Corporate profits had dropped from $10 billion in 1929 to $1 billion in 1932.
 Between 1929 and 1932, the income of the average American family was reduced
by 40%.
 Nine million savings accounts had been wiped out between 1930 and 1933.
 273,000 families had been evicted from their homes in 1932.
 There were two million homeless people migrating around the country.
 Over 60% of Americans were categorized as poor by the federal government in
1933.
 In the last prosperous year (1929), there were 279,678 immigrants recorded, but
in 1933 only 23,068 came to the U.S.
 In the early 1930s, more people emigrated from the United States than
immigrated to it.
 With little economic activity there was scant demand for new coinage. No nickels
or dimes were minted in 1932–33, no quarter dollars in 1931 or 1933, no half
dollars from 1930 to 1932, and no silver dollars in the years 1929–33.
 The U.S. government sponsored a Mexican Repatriation program which was
intended to encourage people to voluntarily move to Mexico, but thousands,

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 including some U.S. citizens, were deported against their will. Altogether about
400,000 Mexicans were repatriated.
 New York social workers reported that 25% of all schoolchildren were
malnourished. In the mining counties of West Virginia, Illinois, Kentucky, and
Pennsylvania, the proportion of malnourished children was perhaps as high as
90%.
 Many people became ill with diseases such as tuberculosis (TB).
 The 1930 U.S. Census determined the U.S. population to be 122,775,046. About
40% of the population was under 20 years old.

Revision Questions
 What were the major factors that led to the Great Depression in the USA as from
the late 1920s? How did the USA respond to the depression?
 What was the impact of the Great Depression on the USA?

TOPIC 13: THE USA IN WORLD WAR II

Questions
 Discuss the impact of WW II on USA foreign policy.

Background
 When WW II broke out in 1939, the USA was already on the path towards
economic recovery from the shocks of the Great Depression. Initially, the USA
was reluctant to join the war as was the case with WWI. However, in 1941 due to
provocation by Japan which invaded USA military installations in Hawaii in the
pacific, the USA was forced to join the war on the side of the allied powers led by
the UK, Russia, France and their dominions.
 The entrance of the USA once again changed the fortunes of the allied powers
against the Axis powers led by Germany, Japan and Italy.
 The USA led the allied powers win the war in Europe with the defeat of the
Germans and in the pacific with the defeat of Japan.
 At the end of the war the USA and Russia now emerged as major global powers.
The two super powers now became entangled in rivalry that came to be known as
the Cold war. Although the cold war did not lead to a major global conflict, it
encouraged political instability in different parts of the world as the two powers
sought to establish supremacy.
 The cold war ended in the 1990s with the collapse of the Soviet Union and
communism in Eastern Europe. The USA subsequently emerged as the single
most important power in the modern world but she continues to face challenges in
such fronts as terrorism, growth of religious fundamentalism, economic rivalry
from countries such as China, the proliferation of arms such as nuclear weapons
etc.

USA entrance to WW II and its impacts

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  Just like in the case with WW I the USA entered WW II very reluctantly and in
fact until 1941 the USA regarded the war as a European conflict which could not
have a huge impact on its economy.
 However, throughout the period up to 1941, the USA was closely monitoring the
war and actually gave aid to the allied forces.
 The Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbour in December 1941 changed the USA
perspective on the war. The USA realised that it was a matter of time before the
war could be brought right into her own soil.
 The USA entrance into the war changed the fortunes of the allied forces who were
already experiencing fatigue and low morale in Europe and North Africa. The
USA brought it immense resources in terms of fresh supplies such as food, clothes
etc as well as weapons and logistics.
 The USA commitment to the war was given further impetus due to public
support. The USA president F.D Roosevelt got support from both his own
Democratic party and the republicans who traditionally did not agree on many
issues. When Roosevelt’s second term ended in the midst of the war in 1941, he
was able to win an unprecedented third term, so as to continue with the war
campaign without any domestic political interference.
 Unlike President Woodrow Wilson who made many plunders which cost him his
presidency at the end of WW I, Roosevelt maintained a more proactive approach
by openly supporting the allied powers and China in their campaigns against the
Axis powers.
 This policy earned the USA a huge leverage at the end of the war as she now
emerged as a major player in global politics in its new status of a super power.
 In fact, WW II marked a major turning point in the growing influence of the USA
in global politics in the post war era.

TOPIC 14: The USA and the Cold War

 The Cold War was a state of political and military tension after World War II
between powers in the Western Bloc (the United States, its NATO allies and
others) and powers in the Eastern Bloc (the Soviet Union and its allies in the
Warsaw Pact).

How and why was the USA involved in the Cold War

 During the Second World War, the USA and the Soviet Union fought side by side
against Hitler and the Nazis, but they were not allies for long. These were the two
most powerful countries in the world, but they were completely different to each
other. The Soviet Union was a Communist country whilst the USA was a
Capitalist country.
 Because both countries had the atomic bomb it was impossible for them to go to
war against each other. Instead, they engaged in a Cold War between 1945 and
1989 – a war without actual fighting between American and Russian soldiers.
Winston Churchill, the British Prime Minister, said that an iron curtain had

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 fallen across Eastern Europe which was controlled by the Soviet Union and the
USA.

 Truman Doctrine: was one of the hallmarks of the cold war politics. This was
an ideology associated with President Harry Truman who became USA
president in 1945 as the was ending in Europe. Having realised the precariuos
position of the USA in the face of growing competition from Russia, President
Truman devised a two-pronged policy to contain the spread of Russia’s influence
in Europe and the spread of communism. This policy basically revolved around
three elements: containment, the Marshall Plan and the domino theory.
 Containment – the USA’s policy to stop Communism from spreading. This was
the opposite of the policy of isolationism. President Truman offered help to any
country that was under military threat, either from within or outside the country,
in the hope that this would stop Communism from spreading.

 Marshall Aid: The Secretary of State, George C Marshall, offered $13 billion in
aid to the countries that were trying to reconstruct after the war. Through this, it
was possible to implement Truman's containment policy. America believed that
the countries of Europe would be more likely to come under the influence of
Communism if the people were poor. Stalin accused the USA of trying to
dominate the countries of Eastern Europe and so he refused to allow Soviet
countries to accept aid.

 The Domino Theory: America's concern was that once one country had fallen to
Communism, nearby countries would follow suit and before long Communism
would reach America. Therefore, the USA embarked on a policy of ensuring that
no countries in Europe and elsewhere would fall under the control of the Soviet
Union and the best way to ensure that this did not happen was through the policy
of containment and Marshall aid.

How and why was the USA involved in the Cold War?

1. The USA involvement in Germany

After the Second World War Germany was split into four regions. By June 1948 the
regions that were under the control of America, Britain and France had been combined
and a new currency was introduced in order to try and make this new region a successful
one. Stalin was worried that Berlin would bocome a capitalist centre within Communist
Eastern Europe.

 The blockade - The soldiers of the Soviet Union blocked access routes between
West Berlin and West Germany on 24 June 1948. The aim was to force the West
to surrender their region by depriving the people of food. This did not happen.

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  The airlift - In response to the blockade aeroplanes were used to transport goods
to three airports in West Berlin. The cargo included food, clothes, medical
supplies and even petrol and coal. When the airlift was at its peak, an aeroplane
was landing every 90 seconds.
 The end of the blockade - Stalin believed that it would be impossible for the
West to continue supplying Berlin. He wanted the Americans to leave Berlin and
he wanted to abolish the new currency. When he realised that the supplies were
continuing to arrive, he lifted the blockade in May 1949.

2. The USA Entrance of NATO

What was the significance of the decision to join the North Atlantic Treaty
Organisation (NATO)?

 A result of the Berlin blockade – it sent a clear message to the USSR (Union of
Soviet Socialist Republics).
 An historic turning point in US foreign policy – it was established in a time of
peace.

 Twelve countries in the West making a promise to defend each other if a crisis
arose.

 The response of the USSR – they announced that they were testing their first
nuclear bomb.

3. The Cuban Missile Crisis of 0ctober 1962

 In 1959 Fidel Castro, a left-wing nationalist, took power in Cuba (an
island only 90 miles off the coast of Florida). Before Castro came to
power, the government – led by Colonel Batista – had been a right-wing
military dictatorship, but the Americans had many business interests in
Cuba.
 When Castro came to power, he wanted to nationalize. This means he
wanted his country’s government to run the American companies in Cuba.
The response of the Americans was to stop all aid to Cuba and stop
importing sugar from Cuba.
 The only country willing to buy sugar from Cuba was the USSR. Cuba
and the USSR made an agreement in 1960 that Russia would buy sugar
from Cuba and sell oil to Cuba.
 Castro declared Cuba a Communist country.
 The USA believed that Fidel Castro was building sites for USSR nuclear
missiles in Cuba. In October 1962 one of the American U2 spy planes
took images of the sites. They realised that it would be possible for these
missiles to reach every large city in the USA.

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The importance of the Cuban missile crisis

 President Kennedy and President Khrushchev, the leader of the USSR, were
accused of taking serious risks – but also they were both praised for avoiding a
war.
 Khrushchev was praised by the West for his wisdom – but China criticized him
for being weak.
 The relationship improved between the two sides – an emergency phone line was
set up between the White House in Washington and the Kremlin in Moscow. The
intention was for both two sides to discuss any problems should they arise.
 A Nuclear Test Ban Treaty was signed in 1963 – it was illegal to test nuclear
arms in the atmosphere, in the sea or in space.

4. The War in Vietnam (November 1955-April 1975)

The causes of the war in Vietnam

 In 1954 Ho Chi Minh led Communist rebels to remove the French rulers from
Indo-China. Indo-China was split into four states: Cambodia, Laos, North
Vietnam and South Vietnam. Ho Chi Minh led North Vietnam and South Vietnam
was led by Ngo Dinh Diem - an anti-Communist government.

 Ho Chi Minh wanted the whole of Vietnam to become Communist. As part of the
USA’s Containment Policy, Eisenhower and Kennedy sent arms and advisors to
assist South Vietnam.
 The Soviet Union also entered into the conflict by supporting the communist state
of North Vietnam.
 The war turned to be a huge challenge to the USA due to the loss of its manpower
and military arsenal. In 1973 the USA was forced to withraw its forces from
Vietnam due to pressure from the public. The Vietnam war cost President Richard
Nixon the presidency in 1974 when he was forced to resign to avoid
impeachment.

Revision Questions
 What were the major factors that compelled the USA to join WW II and what
impact did this have on the outcome of the war?
 What were the major factors that led to the COLD WAR in Europe and other
parts of the world as from 1945?
 What was the contribution of the USA to the onset of the cold war? How did the
USA respond to the cold war?
 What was the impact of the cold war on the USA foreign policy??

TOPIC 15: THE USA IN THE NEW WORLD ORDER.

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  Since the end of WW II, the USA has emerged as a major global power. Up to
1990 both the USA and the Soviet Union played the role of the two major super
powers in global politics. Each of the countries sought to stamp its authority and
influence in different parts of the world.
 During this period each of the Super powers sought to make its presence felt
across the globe. However, in 1990 the Soviet Union experienced a major setback
with the collapse of the union which had held together the former Soviet Union
and the satellite states together.
 The USA was now left as the only major super power with the exit of the Soviet
Union. The USA despite this new position has faced many challenges which
include:
 The growing power of other countries such as China which have effectively
competed with the USA in different areas.
 The growth radicalism and terrorism especially in the Arab world.
 Decline of the USA economy
 Decline of the western European powers such as the UK which have traditionally
supported the USA. European countries have formed their own regional bodies
such as the EU which have distanced themselves from the USA.
 However, despite these challenges the USA continues to play a major role in
global politics as a leader in technology, education, culture, the economy, the
spread of democracy and human rights etc

Revision Question
 What were the major factors that led to the emergence of the USA as a major
world power since 1945?

TOPIC 16: CONCLUSIONS

HST 211: Survey of USA History

DISCUSSION/REVISION QUESTIONS
Second Semester 2021/2022
Dr K Moindi
Date: January 17th 2023.

SECTION A
1. Examine the social, economic and political organization of Native American
societies before the time of European conquest. What was the impact of European
settlement on the Native American societies?

2. Why did Europeans migrate to North America in the period between the 16 th to
19th centuries? What were the experiences of these initial settlers?

3. Examine the Spanish conquest and settlement of American colonies from the 16 th
to 18th centuries. What factors enabled the Spanish to succeed in the establishment

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 of colonies?

4. Examine the English conquest and settlement of American colonies from the 16 th
to 18th centuries. What factors enabled the Spanish to succeed in the establishment
of colonies.

5. Discuss the French and Dutch establishment of colonies in America. Why did the
French and Dutch not have extensive colonies compared to the English and
Spanish?

6. Examine the social and economic transformation of the English colonies of North
America before independence in 1776. .

7. Critically examine the causes and events leading to the American War of
Independence. What was the impact of the war on American history?

8. Examine the contribution of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Andrew

Jackson in the making of the American nation.

9. Critically analyze the expansion both economically and politically of the

American nation in the period from 1776-1860s. How did the “Monroe Doctrine
“define USA foreign policy during this period?

10. Analyse the role of the Monroe Doctrine and the Policy of Manifest Destiny in the
evolution of USA foreign policy during the 19th century.

11. Examine the major factors that contributed to the expansion of the USA from the
east coast to the west during the 19th. What was the impact of this?

12. Critically examine the major factors that led to the American Civil war between
1861-1865. What were the major impacts of the war on American history?

SECTION B.

13. Analyze the major features of the Reconstruction programs initiated in the USA
after the Civil War. What were the responses of the White and Black people to
reconstruction?

14. Examine the various forms of White response to Reconstruction in the USA. Why
did the White people refuse to accept reconstruction?

15. Examine the inter-racial relations in the USA in the post emancipation era.

16. What were the challenges that faced Black people in the USA during the
reconstruction era? How did they respond to these challenges?

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17. Compare and contrast the approaches of Booker T. Washington and W.E.B
Dubois to the Civil Rights Movement in the USA.

18. Analyse contribution of the Harlem Renaissance in the growth of Afro American
nationalism and racial consciousness in the post emancipation era.

19. Examine the major factors that contributed to the rise of the USA as a major
industrial and economic power as from the late 19th century onwards.

20. Examine the role of the USA during WW I. What factors contributed to make the
USA shift from an isolationist policy to play a more active role in international
politics after WWI?

21. Analyze the responses of the USA to the challenges of the Great Depression of
the late 1920s to the 1930s.

22. Examine the major factors that compelled the USA to decide to join WW II and
the impact this had on the outcome of the war.

23. Examine the major issues that defined USA foreign policy during the Cold War
era.

24. Analyse the impact of globalization on USA foreign policy in the post-cold war
era.

25. Examine the contribution of the following to the Civil Rights movement and
Afro-American nationalism in the USA:
(a) Booker T Washington
(b) Martin Luther Jnr
(c) Fredrick Douglas
(d) Malcolm X
(e) Ida B Wells
(f) Marcus Garvey
(g) W.E.B Dubois
(h) Edward Wilmot Blyden
(i) George Padmore

THE END:

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