J. Rixey Ruffin
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- January 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195326512
- eISBN:
- 9780199870417
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195326512.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
William Bentley was a Congregationalist pastor in Salem, Massachusetts, during the first few decades of independence. He was also a figure quite unlike anyone else in all of America. In talent, ...
More
William Bentley was a Congregationalist pastor in Salem, Massachusetts, during the first few decades of independence. He was also a figure quite unlike anyone else in all of America. In talent, vision, and most importantly ideas, he was a unique and heretofore underappreciated member of the founding generation. To study his life is to study the intellectual world in which he moved and through which he cut a unique and illustrative path. In theological terms, he was both an Arminian and what this book calls a “Christian naturalist,” a combination that was both unique and volatile. For if his belief in the Arminian view of salvation put him at odds with his Calvinist contemporaries (including his senior colleague at the East Church), his unique denial of post‐biblical supernaturalism and his unique embrace of Socinianism (a denial of the divinity of Jesus more radical than what others would call “Unitarianism”) put him also at odds with other Arminians. But it was the only way that Bentley could keep both what he thought essential to Christianity and what he thought true about the natural world. In the realm of social ideology, he was both a classical liberal and a republican at the same time, but if he was able in the 1780s to be both, the 1790s would pull apart these dualities and see him move along the path to Jeffersonian Republicanism. But even here he was, among the New England clergy, alone, drawn to the party not by its support for disestablishment so much as by his unique approbation of Rousseau's state of nature theorizing. William Bentley's life, ministry, and thought allow a singular exploration of theology and philosophy as well as of ideology: of the social politics of race and class and gender, the ecclesiastical politics of establishment and dissent, and between minister and laity, the ideological politics of republicanism and classical liberalism, and the party politics of Federalism and Democratic‐Republicanism.Less
William Bentley was a Congregationalist pastor in Salem, Massachusetts, during the first few decades of independence. He was also a figure quite unlike anyone else in all of America. In talent, vision, and most importantly ideas, he was a unique and heretofore underappreciated member of the founding generation. To study his life is to study the intellectual world in which he moved and through which he cut a unique and illustrative path. In theological terms, he was both an Arminian and what this book calls a “Christian naturalist,” a combination that was both unique and volatile. For if his belief in the Arminian view of salvation put him at odds with his Calvinist contemporaries (including his senior colleague at the East Church), his unique denial of post‐biblical supernaturalism and his unique embrace of Socinianism (a denial of the divinity of Jesus more radical than what others would call “Unitarianism”) put him also at odds with other Arminians. But it was the only way that Bentley could keep both what he thought essential to Christianity and what he thought true about the natural world. In the realm of social ideology, he was both a classical liberal and a republican at the same time, but if he was able in the 1780s to be both, the 1790s would pull apart these dualities and see him move along the path to Jeffersonian Republicanism. But even here he was, among the New England clergy, alone, drawn to the party not by its support for disestablishment so much as by his unique approbation of Rousseau's state of nature theorizing. William Bentley's life, ministry, and thought allow a singular exploration of theology and philosophy as well as of ideology: of the social politics of race and class and gender, the ecclesiastical politics of establishment and dissent, and between minister and laity, the ideological politics of republicanism and classical liberalism, and the party politics of Federalism and Democratic‐Republicanism.
John Saillant
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780195157178
- eISBN:
- 9780199834617
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195157176.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity
In the second half of the eighteenth century, British and American men and women began criticizing the slave trade and slavery as violations of the principles of Christianity, natural rights, and ...
More
In the second half of the eighteenth century, British and American men and women began criticizing the slave trade and slavery as violations of the principles of Christianity, natural rights, and political security. A black spokesman for abolitionism was Lemuel Haynes (1753–1833), one of the first African Americans to publish. Haynes served as a minuteman in the American War of Independence and began writing against the slave trade and slavery in the 1770s. After ordination in a Congregational church, he assumed a pulpit in Rutland, Vermont, where he became a leading controversialist, defender of the theology of Jonathan Edwards, and interpreter of republican ideology. He was dismissed from his pulpit in 1818, because his affiliation to the Federalist Party and his opposition to the War of 1812 offended his congregation. The last 15 years of his life were characterized by pessimism about the ability of Americans of the early republic to defeat racism as well as by a defense of Puritanism, which he believed could guide the creation of a free, harmonious, and integrated society.Less
In the second half of the eighteenth century, British and American men and women began criticizing the slave trade and slavery as violations of the principles of Christianity, natural rights, and political security. A black spokesman for abolitionism was Lemuel Haynes (1753–1833), one of the first African Americans to publish. Haynes served as a minuteman in the American War of Independence and began writing against the slave trade and slavery in the 1770s. After ordination in a Congregational church, he assumed a pulpit in Rutland, Vermont, where he became a leading controversialist, defender of the theology of Jonathan Edwards, and interpreter of republican ideology. He was dismissed from his pulpit in 1818, because his affiliation to the Federalist Party and his opposition to the War of 1812 offended his congregation. The last 15 years of his life were characterized by pessimism about the ability of Americans of the early republic to defeat racism as well as by a defense of Puritanism, which he believed could guide the creation of a free, harmonious, and integrated society.
J. Rixey Ruffin
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- January 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195326512
- eISBN:
- 9780199870417
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195326512.003.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
These opening pages introduce the reader to the figure of William Bentley, to the physical and ecclesiastical structure of Salem, and to the central place of religiosity within the bustling economic ...
More
These opening pages introduce the reader to the figure of William Bentley, to the physical and ecclesiastical structure of Salem, and to the central place of religiosity within the bustling economic life of the town. They also gesture at the importance of Bentley—and thus this book—in understanding the social implications of the American Revolution, the ideological consequences not only of liberal Christianity but also of its other versions, the complicated interactions between religion and politics in late 18th‐century New England, and most importantly the means by which men and women tried to reconcile their faith to the new imperatives of the Enlightenment.Less
These opening pages introduce the reader to the figure of William Bentley, to the physical and ecclesiastical structure of Salem, and to the central place of religiosity within the bustling economic life of the town. They also gesture at the importance of Bentley—and thus this book—in understanding the social implications of the American Revolution, the ideological consequences not only of liberal Christianity but also of its other versions, the complicated interactions between religion and politics in late 18th‐century New England, and most importantly the means by which men and women tried to reconcile their faith to the new imperatives of the Enlightenment.
John Saillant
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780195157178
- eISBN:
- 9780199834617
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195157176.003.0006
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity
A new racism arose in the early American republic that set aside the antislavery arguments of men and women who were, like Lemuel Haynes, rooted in eighteenth‐century modes of thought like Edwardsean ...
More
A new racism arose in the early American republic that set aside the antislavery arguments of men and women who were, like Lemuel Haynes, rooted in eighteenth‐century modes of thought like Edwardsean theology and republican ideology. Haynes had always argued that blacks and whites must live harmoniously in an integrated society if Americans wished to be true to Calvinism and republicanism. In the early nineteenth century, many Americans became convinced that blacks and whites were so separate cognitively and physically that they could never coexist as equals. Haynes set himself against what he saw as divisive forces, including Universalism, a new Christian denomination led by Hosea Ballou. Haynes invoked as a standard for race relations the godly unity idealized in American Puritanism and expressed in early American texts such as the captivity narrative of Mary Rowlandson. In his last years, Haynes worked as an itinerant preacher but never held a reliable pulpit between his dismissal in 1818 from his Rutland, Vermont, church and his death in 1833 in Granville, Massachusetts.Less
A new racism arose in the early American republic that set aside the antislavery arguments of men and women who were, like Lemuel Haynes, rooted in eighteenth‐century modes of thought like Edwardsean theology and republican ideology. Haynes had always argued that blacks and whites must live harmoniously in an integrated society if Americans wished to be true to Calvinism and republicanism. In the early nineteenth century, many Americans became convinced that blacks and whites were so separate cognitively and physically that they could never coexist as equals. Haynes set himself against what he saw as divisive forces, including Universalism, a new Christian denomination led by Hosea Ballou. Haynes invoked as a standard for race relations the godly unity idealized in American Puritanism and expressed in early American texts such as the captivity narrative of Mary Rowlandson. In his last years, Haynes worked as an itinerant preacher but never held a reliable pulpit between his dismissal in 1818 from his Rutland, Vermont, church and his death in 1833 in Granville, Massachusetts.
Jonathan D. Sassi
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780195129892
- eISBN:
- 9780199834624
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/019512989X.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity
This book analyzes the debate over the proper connection between religion and society that took place in southern New England during the fifty years after the American Revolution. It finds that a ...
More
This book analyzes the debate over the proper connection between religion and society that took place in southern New England during the fifty years after the American Revolution. It finds that a Christian social ideology, descended from the region's Puritan origins, endured and evolved during the era of the early republic, in contrast to interpretations that emphasize the individualization and secularization of American public life during the period. In the last two decades of the eighteenth century, the Congregational clergy articulated a corporate ethic that emphasized the superintendence of divine Providence over communal affairs and the importance of social morality for the survival of the new nation, although Baptists and other religious minorities dissented and called for the disestablishment of Congregationalism. By the early nineteenth century, the first party competition between Federalists and Democratic‐Republicans politicized and transformed the debate over public Christianity. Congregationalists became disillusioned with their prophecies of America's millennial role and soured on their partnership with the Federalist magistracy, while dissenters joined Jeffersonians in agitating for disestablishment. At the same time, however, the Congregationalists found cause for optimism amid the revivals of the Second Great Awakening. The experience of Worcester County, Massachusetts was typical, where religious revivals and clerical networking at the grassroots fostered a new vision of the godly community. In the years after 1815 partisan acrimony declined, and the Congregationalists split into Unitarian and orthodox camps. As a result, an evangelical coalition of orthodox Congregationalists, Baptists, and others emerged that charted the way for renewed activism on the part of a Christian electorate and mobilized church. The transformed public Christianity of the 1820s and 1830s made a seminal contribution to the emergence of a variety of reform movements, such as temperance, Sabbatarianism, and antislavery.Less
This book analyzes the debate over the proper connection between religion and society that took place in southern New England during the fifty years after the American Revolution. It finds that a Christian social ideology, descended from the region's Puritan origins, endured and evolved during the era of the early republic, in contrast to interpretations that emphasize the individualization and secularization of American public life during the period. In the last two decades of the eighteenth century, the Congregational clergy articulated a corporate ethic that emphasized the superintendence of divine Providence over communal affairs and the importance of social morality for the survival of the new nation, although Baptists and other religious minorities dissented and called for the disestablishment of Congregationalism. By the early nineteenth century, the first party competition between Federalists and Democratic‐Republicans politicized and transformed the debate over public Christianity. Congregationalists became disillusioned with their prophecies of America's millennial role and soured on their partnership with the Federalist magistracy, while dissenters joined Jeffersonians in agitating for disestablishment. At the same time, however, the Congregationalists found cause for optimism amid the revivals of the Second Great Awakening. The experience of Worcester County, Massachusetts was typical, where religious revivals and clerical networking at the grassroots fostered a new vision of the godly community. In the years after 1815 partisan acrimony declined, and the Congregationalists split into Unitarian and orthodox camps. As a result, an evangelical coalition of orthodox Congregationalists, Baptists, and others emerged that charted the way for renewed activism on the part of a Christian electorate and mobilized church. The transformed public Christianity of the 1820s and 1830s made a seminal contribution to the emergence of a variety of reform movements, such as temperance, Sabbatarianism, and antislavery.
Margot Minardi
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- January 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195379372
- eISBN:
- 9780199869152
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195379372.003.0002
- Subject:
- History, American History: 19th Century
The introduction places the book in the context of recent social, cultural, and intellectual history on the nature of emancipation and historical agency in the early republic. The American Revolution ...
More
The introduction places the book in the context of recent social, cultural, and intellectual history on the nature of emancipation and historical agency in the early republic. The American Revolution inaugurated a debate about who could claim autonomy to make political decisions and have a stake in the distribution of power. Given these origins of the republic, the early national contestation over the meaning of the Revolution was a struggle not only to shake off slavery but also to reframe how different people were situated vis‐à‐vis such a monumental historical transformation.Less
The introduction places the book in the context of recent social, cultural, and intellectual history on the nature of emancipation and historical agency in the early republic. The American Revolution inaugurated a debate about who could claim autonomy to make political decisions and have a stake in the distribution of power. Given these origins of the republic, the early national contestation over the meaning of the Revolution was a struggle not only to shake off slavery but also to reframe how different people were situated vis‐à‐vis such a monumental historical transformation.
Karin E. Gedge
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- January 2005
- ISBN:
- 9780195130201
- eISBN:
- 9780199835157
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195130200.003.0002
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity
European travelers to the early republic published numerous accounts that often expressed alarm and dismay at the reciprocal devotion of women and ministers, seeing in it a threat to families, ...
More
European travelers to the early republic published numerous accounts that often expressed alarm and dismay at the reciprocal devotion of women and ministers, seeing in it a threat to families, churches, and the republic itself. Whether conservative or liberal, skeptical or approving of the democratic experiment and the disestablished church, writers as varied as Frances Trollope, Harriet Martineau, Francis Grund, Charles Dickens, and Frances Wright felt compelled to describe the pastoral relationship and often did so in derogatory ways. It served as synecdoche and bellwether for the health of the republic.Less
European travelers to the early republic published numerous accounts that often expressed alarm and dismay at the reciprocal devotion of women and ministers, seeing in it a threat to families, churches, and the republic itself. Whether conservative or liberal, skeptical or approving of the democratic experiment and the disestablished church, writers as varied as Frances Trollope, Harriet Martineau, Francis Grund, Charles Dickens, and Frances Wright felt compelled to describe the pastoral relationship and often did so in derogatory ways. It served as synecdoche and bellwether for the health of the republic.
Joan Judge
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780520284364
- eISBN:
- 9780520959934
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520284364.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, Asian History
The first chapter presents Funü shibao in its historical and print context. It emphasizes Funü shibao’s innovativeness in order to highlight both the distinctiveness of the journal and the range of ...
More
The first chapter presents Funü shibao in its historical and print context. It emphasizes Funü shibao’s innovativeness in order to highlight both the distinctiveness of the journal and the range of possibilities that existed in this period. Focusing on the remarkable resources of its publisher and the cultural ingenuity of its editor, it also situates the journal within revolutionary and early Republican politics. It excavates the journal’s often implicit political agenda and introduces some of its key female and male contributors. The chapter further outlines the cultural and historical methodology for reading the periodical press that is used throughout the book. This method focuses on the intermediality of the journal itself, its dialogue with other print products, and its position within larger cultural debates and historical developments.Less
The first chapter presents Funü shibao in its historical and print context. It emphasizes Funü shibao’s innovativeness in order to highlight both the distinctiveness of the journal and the range of possibilities that existed in this period. Focusing on the remarkable resources of its publisher and the cultural ingenuity of its editor, it also situates the journal within revolutionary and early Republican politics. It excavates the journal’s often implicit political agenda and introduces some of its key female and male contributors. The chapter further outlines the cultural and historical methodology for reading the periodical press that is used throughout the book. This method focuses on the intermediality of the journal itself, its dialogue with other print products, and its position within larger cultural debates and historical developments.
Eric Lomazoff
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780226579313
- eISBN:
- 9780226579597
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226579597.001.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, American Politics
This book provides a revisionist history of the constitutional controversy over a national bank (1791-1832), and uses that history to reinforce and refine broader propositions respecting American ...
More
This book provides a revisionist history of the constitutional controversy over a national bank (1791-1832), and uses that history to reinforce and refine broader propositions respecting American constitutional development. While the controversy is traditionally presented as a recurring two-sided struggle over the meaning of the Necessary and Proper Clause, with national bank advocates repeatedly pushing a “broad” reading of the provision and their opponents pressing for a “strict” understanding of it, the book reveals both that a larger and more diverse set of constitutional claims were deployed and that these claims varied over time. In particular, several post-1815 iterations of the national bank controversy featured claims respecting Congress’s ability to charter the institution pursuant to its power under the Coinage Clause of Article I, Section 8. The book demonstrates that much of the variation in constitutional claims between 1791 and 1832 is attributable to three factors: ideological strife within Jefferson and Madison’s Republican party, institutional change within the national bank itself, and economic stress that commenced during (but continued after) the War of 1812. The book argues that collectively, these three factors help to reinforce the broader proposition that American constitutional development is routinely driven as much by politics as by law. Those same factors also help to furnish more specific developmental propositions, including the idea that the terms of a long-running constitutional dispute may shift in response to change in the underlying object of disputation.Less
This book provides a revisionist history of the constitutional controversy over a national bank (1791-1832), and uses that history to reinforce and refine broader propositions respecting American constitutional development. While the controversy is traditionally presented as a recurring two-sided struggle over the meaning of the Necessary and Proper Clause, with national bank advocates repeatedly pushing a “broad” reading of the provision and their opponents pressing for a “strict” understanding of it, the book reveals both that a larger and more diverse set of constitutional claims were deployed and that these claims varied over time. In particular, several post-1815 iterations of the national bank controversy featured claims respecting Congress’s ability to charter the institution pursuant to its power under the Coinage Clause of Article I, Section 8. The book demonstrates that much of the variation in constitutional claims between 1791 and 1832 is attributable to three factors: ideological strife within Jefferson and Madison’s Republican party, institutional change within the national bank itself, and economic stress that commenced during (but continued after) the War of 1812. The book argues that collectively, these three factors help to reinforce the broader proposition that American constitutional development is routinely driven as much by politics as by law. Those same factors also help to furnish more specific developmental propositions, including the idea that the terms of a long-running constitutional dispute may shift in response to change in the underlying object of disputation.
Joyce Appleby
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199769063
- eISBN:
- 9780199896851
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199769063.003.0006
- Subject:
- Sociology, Economic Sociology
This chapter shows how anxiety over the status of luxury only grew more acute in the transition from colonial hardship to national prosperity in the era of the early Republic. Fear of famine was ...
More
This chapter shows how anxiety over the status of luxury only grew more acute in the transition from colonial hardship to national prosperity in the era of the early Republic. Fear of famine was largely eliminated, concentration on bare survival made way for concern with economic growth, and ordinary people began to produce, and enjoy on a large scale, “goods to comfort and adorn body and home.” While moderation, restraint, and self-discipline—variations on the theme of thrift—were not abandoned, their religious and moral justifications were gradually supplemented and in some cases replaced by instrumental and economic ones.Less
This chapter shows how anxiety over the status of luxury only grew more acute in the transition from colonial hardship to national prosperity in the era of the early Republic. Fear of famine was largely eliminated, concentration on bare survival made way for concern with economic growth, and ordinary people began to produce, and enjoy on a large scale, “goods to comfort and adorn body and home.” While moderation, restraint, and self-discipline—variations on the theme of thrift—were not abandoned, their religious and moral justifications were gradually supplemented and in some cases replaced by instrumental and economic ones.
David Waldstreicher, Jeffrey L. Pasley, and Andrew W. Robertson
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- July 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780807828892
- eISBN:
- 9781469605241
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/9780807898833_pasley.4
- Subject:
- History, American History: early to 18th Century
This book examines the exercise of power by the founding fathers and how they shaped subsequent American history. Since the late 1970s, historians have recognized the need for a broader approach in ...
More
This book examines the exercise of power by the founding fathers and how they shaped subsequent American history. Since the late 1970s, historians have recognized the need for a broader approach in organizing the history of the early republic and its politics. Influenced by a larger trend toward cultural history, younger political historians have broadened the study of political culture beyond the partisan persuasions. Approaches to cultural politics, for example, can provide better understanding of the ways in which extra-partisan strategies shaped American politics. This book depicts the current achievements and future prospects of the newest political histories. It discusses the importance of popular politics and the politics of identity; the strategies and outcomes of gendered politics, racial politics and romantic nationalism; and the achievements of intellectual historians, political theorists, and constitutional scholars. The book demonstrates how American political institutions and practices emerged, and presents a story about leaders and followers, and citizens unified and divided by partisanship, gender, race, class, religion, and nationalism.Less
This book examines the exercise of power by the founding fathers and how they shaped subsequent American history. Since the late 1970s, historians have recognized the need for a broader approach in organizing the history of the early republic and its politics. Influenced by a larger trend toward cultural history, younger political historians have broadened the study of political culture beyond the partisan persuasions. Approaches to cultural politics, for example, can provide better understanding of the ways in which extra-partisan strategies shaped American politics. This book depicts the current achievements and future prospects of the newest political histories. It discusses the importance of popular politics and the politics of identity; the strategies and outcomes of gendered politics, racial politics and romantic nationalism; and the achievements of intellectual historians, political theorists, and constitutional scholars. The book demonstrates how American political institutions and practices emerged, and presents a story about leaders and followers, and citizens unified and divided by partisanship, gender, race, class, religion, and nationalism.
Sigal R. Ben-Porath and Michael C. Johanek
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- September 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780226619460
- eISBN:
- 9780226619774
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226619774.003.0002
- Subject:
- Education, Philosophy and Theory of Education
Returning to the colonial period, this chapter revisits several key aspects of how parental choice evolved, through to the early republic. This first chapter reminds us of both the fundamental choice ...
More
Returning to the colonial period, this chapter revisits several key aspects of how parental choice evolved, through to the early republic. This first chapter reminds us of both the fundamental choice of schooling relative to other means of education (church, family, apprenticeship, etc.), as well as the wide mix of “providers” evident since our early colonial days. By the War for Independence, an education revolution had taken place; what had been an assumed, tradition-guided process, followed unconsciously across generations, became a matter of deliberate choice, and a potential instrument in the competitive and diverse environment of the early nation. A variety of institutions emerged to serve a growing republic’s fluid educational needs, including dame schools, venture schools and academies. From the nation’s birth, the great variety in the schooling market, its educational pluralism, reflected a decentralized political system, shifting roles among educating institutions, and a diverse range of providers and purposes for an uprooted people. By the mid-19th century, however, responding to growing concerns for unity and order, the common school movement emerged to consolidate and professionalize much of US compulsory education.Less
Returning to the colonial period, this chapter revisits several key aspects of how parental choice evolved, through to the early republic. This first chapter reminds us of both the fundamental choice of schooling relative to other means of education (church, family, apprenticeship, etc.), as well as the wide mix of “providers” evident since our early colonial days. By the War for Independence, an education revolution had taken place; what had been an assumed, tradition-guided process, followed unconsciously across generations, became a matter of deliberate choice, and a potential instrument in the competitive and diverse environment of the early nation. A variety of institutions emerged to serve a growing republic’s fluid educational needs, including dame schools, venture schools and academies. From the nation’s birth, the great variety in the schooling market, its educational pluralism, reflected a decentralized political system, shifting roles among educating institutions, and a diverse range of providers and purposes for an uprooted people. By the mid-19th century, however, responding to growing concerns for unity and order, the common school movement emerged to consolidate and professionalize much of US compulsory education.
Eric Lomazoff
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780226579313
- eISBN:
- 9780226579597
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226579597.003.0003
- Subject:
- Political Science, American Politics
This chapter examines the first of two changes within the Bank of the United States that would have downstream consequences for the debate over its constitutionality: its drift from a position of ...
More
This chapter examines the first of two changes within the Bank of the United States that would have downstream consequences for the debate over its constitutionality: its drift from a position of industry dominance. Between 1791 and 1811, a variety of forces – the public’s desire for profitable investment vehicles, local support for (or opposition to) the opening of a national bank branch, and credit access problems within particular communities – led to the proliferation of state-chartered banks; their number increased from five to 102 during this period, and their aggregate capital from $4.6 million to $56.2 million. The chapter both chronicles this expansion of the American banking industry and explains how that expansion, when coupled with the national bank’s stasis (the size of the institution’s capital remained at $10 million throughout the period), set the stage for claims in 1811 that the Bank of the United States was even less “necessary” than it had been in 1791.Less
This chapter examines the first of two changes within the Bank of the United States that would have downstream consequences for the debate over its constitutionality: its drift from a position of industry dominance. Between 1791 and 1811, a variety of forces – the public’s desire for profitable investment vehicles, local support for (or opposition to) the opening of a national bank branch, and credit access problems within particular communities – led to the proliferation of state-chartered banks; their number increased from five to 102 during this period, and their aggregate capital from $4.6 million to $56.2 million. The chapter both chronicles this expansion of the American banking industry and explains how that expansion, when coupled with the national bank’s stasis (the size of the institution’s capital remained at $10 million throughout the period), set the stage for claims in 1811 that the Bank of the United States was even less “necessary” than it had been in 1791.
James P. Cousins
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- May 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780813168579
- eISBN:
- 9780813168807
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University Press of Kentucky
- DOI:
- 10.5810/kentucky/9780813168579.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, American History: 19th Century
The life of Horace Holley (1781–1827) recalls a time of intellectual promise in the American republic. The New England–born, Yale-educated, Unitarian minister was an unlikely choice for the ...
More
The life of Horace Holley (1781–1827) recalls a time of intellectual promise in the American republic. The New England–born, Yale-educated, Unitarian minister was an unlikely choice for the presidency of Transylvania University in Kentucky, the first college west of the Allegheny Mountains. Kentucky’s religious leaders questioned his orthodoxy; elected officials doubted his abilities; others simply found him arrogant and elitist. As president, however, Holley ushered in a period of sustained educational and cultural growth. Transylvania blossomed under his oversight and received national attention for its scientifically progressive, liberal curriculum. Lexington, Kentucky, the seat of Transylvania, benefited directly from his efforts. An influx of students and celebrated faculty lent the city a distinguished atmosphere and gave credibility to the appellation “Athens of the West.”
But Holley’s story is greater than the sum of these experiences. As a young student at a rising American university, a Calvinist minister in a rural New England town, a Unitarian urbanite of national acclaim, a relocated northern Yankee in Kentucky, and president of the first and most prosperous university of the early American West, Holley symbolizes a period of rapid transformation. His experiences reflect a time when westward expansion and social progress ran against developing religious expectations and regional identities. Holley also figures prominently in the history of education in America. His innovations and missteps, successes and defeats, personal connections and bitter advisories make him an important figure not only in the evolution of an emerging state university but also in the emerging state of higher education in early America.Less
The life of Horace Holley (1781–1827) recalls a time of intellectual promise in the American republic. The New England–born, Yale-educated, Unitarian minister was an unlikely choice for the presidency of Transylvania University in Kentucky, the first college west of the Allegheny Mountains. Kentucky’s religious leaders questioned his orthodoxy; elected officials doubted his abilities; others simply found him arrogant and elitist. As president, however, Holley ushered in a period of sustained educational and cultural growth. Transylvania blossomed under his oversight and received national attention for its scientifically progressive, liberal curriculum. Lexington, Kentucky, the seat of Transylvania, benefited directly from his efforts. An influx of students and celebrated faculty lent the city a distinguished atmosphere and gave credibility to the appellation “Athens of the West.”
But Holley’s story is greater than the sum of these experiences. As a young student at a rising American university, a Calvinist minister in a rural New England town, a Unitarian urbanite of national acclaim, a relocated northern Yankee in Kentucky, and president of the first and most prosperous university of the early American West, Holley symbolizes a period of rapid transformation. His experiences reflect a time when westward expansion and social progress ran against developing religious expectations and regional identities. Holley also figures prominently in the history of education in America. His innovations and missteps, successes and defeats, personal connections and bitter advisories make him an important figure not only in the evolution of an emerging state university but also in the emerging state of higher education in early America.
Cameron B. Strang
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781469640471
- eISBN:
- 9781469640495
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/northcarolina/9781469640471.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, American History: early to 18th Century
Frontiers of Science takes American scientific thought and discoveries away from the learned societies, museums, and teaching halls of the Northeast and puts the production of knowledge about the ...
More
Frontiers of Science takes American scientific thought and discoveries away from the learned societies, museums, and teaching halls of the Northeast and puts the production of knowledge about the natural world in the context of competing empires and an expanding republic in the Gulf South. People often dismissed by starched northeasterners as nonintellectuals--Indian sages, African slaves, Spanish officials, Irishmen on the make, clearers of land and drivers of men--were also scientific observers, gatherers, organizers, and reporters. Skulls and stems, birds and bugs, rocks and maps, tall tales and fertile hypotheses came from them. They collected, described, and sent the objects that scientists gazed on and interpreted in polite Philadelphia. They made knowledge. This book offers a new framework for approaching American intellectual history, one that transcends political and cultural boundaries and reveals persistence across the colonial and national eras. The pursuit of knowledge in the United States did not cohere around democratic politics or the influence of liberty. It was, as in other empires, divided by multiple loyalties and identities, organized through contested hierarchies of ethnicity and place, and reliant on violence. By discovering the lost intellectual history of one region, Strang shows us how to recover a continent for science.Less
Frontiers of Science takes American scientific thought and discoveries away from the learned societies, museums, and teaching halls of the Northeast and puts the production of knowledge about the natural world in the context of competing empires and an expanding republic in the Gulf South. People often dismissed by starched northeasterners as nonintellectuals--Indian sages, African slaves, Spanish officials, Irishmen on the make, clearers of land and drivers of men--were also scientific observers, gatherers, organizers, and reporters. Skulls and stems, birds and bugs, rocks and maps, tall tales and fertile hypotheses came from them. They collected, described, and sent the objects that scientists gazed on and interpreted in polite Philadelphia. They made knowledge. This book offers a new framework for approaching American intellectual history, one that transcends political and cultural boundaries and reveals persistence across the colonial and national eras. The pursuit of knowledge in the United States did not cohere around democratic politics or the influence of liberty. It was, as in other empires, divided by multiple loyalties and identities, organized through contested hierarchies of ethnicity and place, and reliant on violence. By discovering the lost intellectual history of one region, Strang shows us how to recover a continent for science.
Thomas Apel
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- January 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780804797405
- eISBN:
- 9780804799638
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Stanford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.11126/stanford/9780804797405.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, American History: early to 18th Century
From 1793-1805, yellow fever devastated American port cities, killing thousands and prompting a desperate search for its cause. The question of the fever’s origin divided disease investigators into ...
More
From 1793-1805, yellow fever devastated American port cities, killing thousands and prompting a desperate search for its cause. The question of the fever’s origin divided disease investigators into rival camps: “contagionists” thought it came from abroad and could be transmitted from person to person, while “localists” believed it arose from domestically-situated miasmas. Feverish Bodies, Enlightened Minds uses correspondence, newspaper and periodical articles, as well as published fever pamphlets to resurrect the course of the debate and to explore its significance in the history of American science. Localists gradually pushed the argument in their favor, winning more and more converts to their view, and the contagionists increasingly retired from the debate. Without proving that yellow fever arose from miasmas, localists rationalized it as a more plausible element in God’s world. Their success showcases the high value of common sense as an ingredient in scientific knowledge-making, and it shows that claims about disease causality were inseparable from other realms of thought, including assumptions the investigators made about how to develop reliable knowledge about the natural world, their understanding of God’s nature and activity, and their experiences with political conflict in the early American Republic. The localist victory came at a cost, however. Years of bitter fighting left rival parties wanting to exert greater top-down control over scientific knowledge-making. The breakdown exposed the fragility of common-sense science and facilitated the removal of science from the public sphere.Less
From 1793-1805, yellow fever devastated American port cities, killing thousands and prompting a desperate search for its cause. The question of the fever’s origin divided disease investigators into rival camps: “contagionists” thought it came from abroad and could be transmitted from person to person, while “localists” believed it arose from domestically-situated miasmas. Feverish Bodies, Enlightened Minds uses correspondence, newspaper and periodical articles, as well as published fever pamphlets to resurrect the course of the debate and to explore its significance in the history of American science. Localists gradually pushed the argument in their favor, winning more and more converts to their view, and the contagionists increasingly retired from the debate. Without proving that yellow fever arose from miasmas, localists rationalized it as a more plausible element in God’s world. Their success showcases the high value of common sense as an ingredient in scientific knowledge-making, and it shows that claims about disease causality were inseparable from other realms of thought, including assumptions the investigators made about how to develop reliable knowledge about the natural world, their understanding of God’s nature and activity, and their experiences with political conflict in the early American Republic. The localist victory came at a cost, however. Years of bitter fighting left rival parties wanting to exert greater top-down control over scientific knowledge-making. The breakdown exposed the fragility of common-sense science and facilitated the removal of science from the public sphere.
Jay Sexton
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- January 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780199206124
- eISBN:
- 9780191746635
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199206124.003.0011
- Subject:
- History, American History: 19th Century
The early American republic remained embedded in the structures of the British Empire long after the achievement of its political independence in 1783. The nationalism of “postcolonial America,” as ...
More
The early American republic remained embedded in the structures of the British Empire long after the achievement of its political independence in 1783. The nationalism of “postcolonial America,” as recent scholarship has called it, owed much to the on-going struggle to consolidate independence from an increasingly powerful and global British Empire. The best means of loosening Britain’s economic grip over the new republic triggered great social and political conflict. Furthermore, Britain intensified the sectional conflict over slavery that would lead to civil war, both by increasing Southern insecurity through its anti-slavery position and by offering a market and potential alternative political alliance to the cotton producing states of the Deep South. Yet, paradoxically, Britain’s persistent influence and its global pre-eminence played an important role in the consolidation and expansion of the United States.Less
The early American republic remained embedded in the structures of the British Empire long after the achievement of its political independence in 1783. The nationalism of “postcolonial America,” as recent scholarship has called it, owed much to the on-going struggle to consolidate independence from an increasingly powerful and global British Empire. The best means of loosening Britain’s economic grip over the new republic triggered great social and political conflict. Furthermore, Britain intensified the sectional conflict over slavery that would lead to civil war, both by increasing Southern insecurity through its anti-slavery position and by offering a market and potential alternative political alliance to the cotton producing states of the Deep South. Yet, paradoxically, Britain’s persistent influence and its global pre-eminence played an important role in the consolidation and expansion of the United States.
Lacy K. Ford,
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- September 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195118094
- eISBN:
- 9780199870936
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195118094.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, American History: 19th Century
A major contribution to our understanding of slavery in the early republic, this book illuminates the white South's twisted and tortured efforts to justify slavery, focusing on the period from the ...
More
A major contribution to our understanding of slavery in the early republic, this book illuminates the white South's twisted and tortured efforts to justify slavery, focusing on the period from the drafting of the federal constitution in 1787 through the age of Jackson. Drawing on primary sources, including newspapers, government documents, legislative records, pamphlets, and speeches, this book recaptures the varied and sometimes contradictory ideas and attitudes held by groups of white southerners as they debated the slavery question. The book conveys the political, intellectual, economic, and social thought of leading white southerners, vividly recreating the mental world of the varied actors. The book also shows that there was not one antebellum South but many, and not one southern white mindset but several, with the debates over slavery in the upper South quite different in substance from those in the deep South.Less
A major contribution to our understanding of slavery in the early republic, this book illuminates the white South's twisted and tortured efforts to justify slavery, focusing on the period from the drafting of the federal constitution in 1787 through the age of Jackson. Drawing on primary sources, including newspapers, government documents, legislative records, pamphlets, and speeches, this book recaptures the varied and sometimes contradictory ideas and attitudes held by groups of white southerners as they debated the slavery question. The book conveys the political, intellectual, economic, and social thought of leading white southerners, vividly recreating the mental world of the varied actors. The book also shows that there was not one antebellum South but many, and not one southern white mindset but several, with the debates over slavery in the upper South quite different in substance from those in the deep South.
Eric Lomazoff
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780226579313
- eISBN:
- 9780226579597
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226579597.003.0006
- Subject:
- Political Science, American Politics
This chapter chronicles the events that led to, and the constitutional claim that underwrote, the Republican majority’s revival of a national bank in 1816. The conventional wisdom surrounding this ...
More
This chapter chronicles the events that led to, and the constitutional claim that underwrote, the Republican majority’s revival of a national bank in 1816. The conventional wisdom surrounding this period identifies both the problem that revival was designed to solve (the federal government’s ability to finance wartime operations) and the rationale for Republicans’ constitutional about-face on a national bank (President Madison had waived the question in 1815 as “settled”). The chapter supplies alternatives on both points. It argues first that the motive for reviving the Bank was monetary, not fiscal; most state banks had suspended the payment of specie during the War of 1812, and had refused to resume payment after the Treaty of Ghent. It then suggests that leading Republicans offered a novel constitutional argument: insofar as a new Bank would help to restore the nation’s official money (i.e., specie) to circulation – that is, the institution would once again regulate state banks – chartering it represented an exercise of Congress’ power to “coin Money, regulate the Value thereof.” The chapter posits that Republicans gravitated toward this argument because it did not require them to fight anew amongst themselves over the meaning of the Necessary and Proper Clause.Less
This chapter chronicles the events that led to, and the constitutional claim that underwrote, the Republican majority’s revival of a national bank in 1816. The conventional wisdom surrounding this period identifies both the problem that revival was designed to solve (the federal government’s ability to finance wartime operations) and the rationale for Republicans’ constitutional about-face on a national bank (President Madison had waived the question in 1815 as “settled”). The chapter supplies alternatives on both points. It argues first that the motive for reviving the Bank was monetary, not fiscal; most state banks had suspended the payment of specie during the War of 1812, and had refused to resume payment after the Treaty of Ghent. It then suggests that leading Republicans offered a novel constitutional argument: insofar as a new Bank would help to restore the nation’s official money (i.e., specie) to circulation – that is, the institution would once again regulate state banks – chartering it represented an exercise of Congress’ power to “coin Money, regulate the Value thereof.” The chapter posits that Republicans gravitated toward this argument because it did not require them to fight anew amongst themselves over the meaning of the Necessary and Proper Clause.
Cameron B. Strang
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781469640471
- eISBN:
- 9781469640495
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/northcarolina/9781469640471.003.0009
- Subject:
- History, American History: early to 18th Century
This chapter introduces the history of knowledge in the Gulf South and why it matters to American intellectual history on the whole. It also presents the book’s main argument, which is that ...
More
This chapter introduces the history of knowledge in the Gulf South and why it matters to American intellectual history on the whole. It also presents the book’s main argument, which is that encounters in America’s borderlands shaped the production, circulation, and application of natural knowledge within these contested regions and, more broadly, throughout the empires and nations competing for them. The expansion of European powers and the United States were the primary motors that drove these encounters. Between the 1500s and the mid-1800s, Spanish, British, French, and U.S. imperialism brought hitherto unconnected individuals, nations, and environments into intellectually productive (though often physically destructive) contact. These expansion-instigated encounters, moreover, resulted in new material, social, and political circumstances that influenced how people created and shared natural knowledge.Less
This chapter introduces the history of knowledge in the Gulf South and why it matters to American intellectual history on the whole. It also presents the book’s main argument, which is that encounters in America’s borderlands shaped the production, circulation, and application of natural knowledge within these contested regions and, more broadly, throughout the empires and nations competing for them. The expansion of European powers and the United States were the primary motors that drove these encounters. Between the 1500s and the mid-1800s, Spanish, British, French, and U.S. imperialism brought hitherto unconnected individuals, nations, and environments into intellectually productive (though often physically destructive) contact. These expansion-instigated encounters, moreover, resulted in new material, social, and political circumstances that influenced how people created and shared natural knowledge.
