America History

America history

☞ THE THIRTEEN BRITISH COLONIES  IN AMERICA

    In the 1400s and 1500s, European explorers claimed land in North America for the kings of France, Spain and England. Much of the land along the 1600s and 1700s that the British came to settle this land as colonies of Great Britain. In total, 13 colonies were established.

    These colonies were very important to England for trade reasons. The colonies were new markets where British merchants could sell their goods, and the land was rich in natural resources that they could sell to the mother country.

    Although Great Britain controlled colonial trade, she did not control everyday life in the colonies. She found it almost impossible to govern her colonies from across the ocean. Therefore, each of the 13 colonies elected its own assembly, a group of men that governed the colony and made laws.

    The relationship between Mother England and her colonies in America seemed to be a fairly happy one; in fact, Englishmen in the colonies seemed to have more independent than Englishmen back in Great Britain.

☆ PARLIAMENT TAXES THE COLONIES

    In 1740, a war broke out between Great Britain and France. This war was fought both in Europe and North America. Part of this reason for the war was over territory in North America. In 1763, when the British finally defeated the French, France had to give up most of her territory in America. Now the British Empire in North America was larger than ever.

    With this new territory came new problems. Britain needed to protect her new territory from the French and the American Indians who fought on their side. Leaving 10,000 British soldiers in the territory would require money. People in Britain were already heavily taxed, so Parliament had to think of a way to make the American colonists help pay for the soldiers.

    In 1765, Parliament passed the Stamp Act. This law required that all newspapers, magazines, and legal papers in the colonies have a royal stamp. Because the stamp increased the price of these items, the colonists considered it a tax.

☆ PROTESTS AGAINST TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION

    That same year, colonists in Boston protested against the Stamp Act. They sent letters to Parliament, protesting that it did not have the right to tax the colonists because they did not have any representation in Parliament. "No taxation without representation!" they shouted. What did the colonists mean by "no taxation without representation"? They meant that since they did not have members of Parliament in London, they did not see why Parliament should have the right to decide their taxes.

Bostonians argued that if Parliament could tax newspapers without the colonists's consent, it could tax books. Moreover, if Parliament could tax books without the colonists' consent, it could eventually tax everything without their consent. They believed that the colonial assemblies, not Parliament, had the right to make laws for them.

    However, in 1767, Parliament passed another law. This one required that the colonists pay import taxes on a long list of British goods. once again, the colonists in Boston protested and demonstrated against taxation without representation. A group of Bostonians called the "Sons of Liberty" organized a boycott. They got all 13 colonists to agree not to buy glass, tea, and other British imports that were taxed.

      ☆ THE BOSTON MASSACRE

    Protests continued in Boston and in other colonial towns. In 1768, Bostonians set fire to the homes of British tax collectors. Following this violence, 4,000 British soldiers were sent to Boston to quiet the leaders of the Sons of Liberty and to protect the tax collectors from attacks.

    Bostonians resented the taxes and the presence of British soldiers in their town. on March 5, 1770, a group of angry protestors carrying rocks and stones surrounded a much smaller group of British soldiers guarding the tax building. No one knows for sure what caused the soldiers to fire at the demonstrators, killing five citizens and wounding six others. As news of the "Boston Massacre" spread throughout the colonies, resentment toward Parliament and British soldiers grew stronger.

      ☆ THE BOSTON TEA PARTY

    Largely because of the colonial boycott, Parliament decided in 1772 to repeal all of the import taxes, except one. The tax on British tea was kept as a symbol of Parliament's power to make laws for the colonies. Although the tea tax was small, "no taxation without representation" was an extremely important issue to the colonise. When tea was unloaded from British ships, colonial merchants refused to buy it or sell it in their stores. In Boston, town's people would not even allow the tea to be unloaded. on the night of December 16, 1773, the Sons of Liberty disguised themselves as Indians, boarded three British tea ships in the Boston harbor, and threw all their tea into the water. Later, other towns held their own tea parties.

    When the king of England and Parliament heard about the "Boston Tea Party", they decided it was time to punish the unruly colonists. They decided to make Boston an example. In 1774, they closed the port of Boston, took away the power of the Massachusetts assembly, and put the colony under the control of British soldiers. As Bostonians saw it, their town was under military occupation!

    The other 12 colonists united to support Boston and the colony of Massachusetts. They were afraid that if Parliament could punish Massachusetts, it could punish them, too. The colonial assemblies met and wrote a letter of protest to the king. In this letter, they expressed their hope that the relationship between Mother England and her colonies would improve. Most colonists had no desire to go to war against the mother country and the most powerful empire in the world! At the same time, the letter also warned the king that all trade with Britain would stop until Parliament reopened Boston port and restored the power of the Massachusetts assembly.

☆ THE BIRTH OF A NEW NATION AND THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION

  However, the relationship between Mother England and her colonies did not improve. In 1775, fighting broke out between British troops and Bostonians. This was the 1st fighting of the American Revolution. Shortly afterwards, Parliament closed all colonial ports. The colonists now felt they had no choice but to declare themselves independent from the mother country. This happened on July 4, 1776. To the colonists, this day marked the end of the colonial period and the birth of a new nation-the United States of America.

    Although the new nation had declared its independence in 1776, it had to fight long and hard to win its freedom. The American Revolution lasted until 1783. After being defeated, Great Britain officially recognized the independence of her former colonies and also gave up the territory she had won from France. The United States was not only young and independent, but it was now much larger in size.

READING CHECK

A. matching: Names and Terms

  In your reading, you came across the names and terms in the matching exercise below. Match them with the explanations on the right.

1. Parliament             a. protest against the  tea tax

2. Stamp Act             b. British lawmakers

3. import taxes          c. killing of protesters by British shipped

4. Sons of Liberty     d. taxes on certain  British goods shipped to the colonies

5. colonial boycott     e. war the colonies  fought to win independence from Great Britain

6. Boston Massacre   f. tax on the newspapers and other everyday colonial items

7. Boston Tea Party   g. group of Bostonians  who organized a boycott

8. American Revolution   h. protest against import taxes by refusing to buy certain British goods.

B. True or False

  Write true or false and the number of the paragraph(s) that supports your answer. Be prepared to explain your answer.

False   1. Most of the land in North America was claimed for the king of England.

2. Great Britain saw her American colonies only as a place where British merchants              could sell their jobs.

3. The American colonies were mostly self-governed, except in trade matters.

4. In 1763, Britain gained new territory in America as a result of winning a war against        France.

5. To raise money to protect Britain's new territory in America, Parliament increased             taxes in Britain.

6. Bostonians felt that because the colonists did not have representation in Parliament,             Parliament did not have the right to tax them.

7. only Bostonians joined the boycott of British imports that were taxed.

8. The protests against taxation without representation grew increasingly violent.

9. After Parliament took away the power of the Massachusetts assembly, the other                12 colonial assemblies wrote a declaration of independence.

10. July 4, 1776, is the date when the American colonies finally won their independence.

♧ NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA: THE GROWTH OF A NATION

    After winning the Revolution, Americans slowly began to settle the new land they had gained in the Ohio River Valley. In 1803, however, there was a major expansion of land westward when the United States purchased a vast, mostly undeveloped area known as the Louisiana Territory. This territory, located west of the great Mississippi River, doubled the size of the United States but also began to change the culture of the country in some ways. A city that played a role in the territorial expansion and cultural diversity of the country at that time was New Orleans.

   THE EARLY HISTORY OF NEW ORLEANS  AND THE LOUISIANA TERRITORY

  ♧ The Settlement of New Orleans

    New Orleans, founded in 1718 by a French-Canadian named Bienville, was part of the great Louisiana Territory, that had been claimed by France in 1682 and named in honor of king Louis 14 of France. When Bienville began the settlement, it consisted of only a few small, wooden houses built on swampy, delta land.

    The development of New Orleans and the Louisiana Territory was due to the efforts of a trading company sponsored by the king of France. The leader of the company, John Law, was a brilliant man, but a nam without good principles; he had made his fortune gambling. To encourage settlement in Louisiana, Law falsely reported that it had gold and silver mines and that it had a mild climate and easy living. Some French settlers were attracted, but to get enough people for the settlement, prostitutes and criminals in French prisons were forced against their will to this new land. When these settlers arrived in New Orleans, they were shocked to find a land of tropical heat, humidity, floods, hurricanes, and mosquitoes, not to mention the biggest cockroaches in the land. Despite the poor condition, the settlement developed slowly and survived. John Law's trading company did not.

    Despite the early period, the first half of the 1700s, New Orleans was often described as an unruly city. Some considered it a city without religion, without justice, and without order.

     ♧ Spanish Control

    French control of New Orleans ended in 1762 when King Louis 15 of France made a gift of New Orleans and the territory west of the Mississippi to his cousin King Charles of Spain. The French king did this to keep Louisiana from falling into the hands of the British. AT that time, England controlled the eastern part of the North America (except for French Canada and Spanish Florida) and was preparing to take over the Canadian land that belonged to France. During the period of Spanish rule, the population of Louisiana doubled and its farm economy grew. Plantations along the mississippi produced large crops of sugar cane, rice, tobacco, indigo, and cotton, Work on the plantations was done mostly by black slave labor and of the nearly 43,000 people living in the louisiana Territory in 1787, more than half were slaves.

    Despite Spanish control, the French culture continued to dominate Louisiana and several new groups of French-speaking immigrant arrived. There were the French Canadians (called Cajuns) expelled from Canada by the British, the wealthy upper-class French escaping the French Revolution in Europe, and the French-speaking Santo Domingans (today known as Haitians) fleeing political trouble in the Caribbean. These groups helped to keep the French political trouble in  the Caribbean. These groups helped to keep the French culture as the dominant culture in New Orleans and Louisiana, even though the territory was ruled by Spain.

♧  Return to French Rule and the Louisiana Purchase

    Spain returned Louisiana to French rule by a treaty in 1801. This treaty, however, was kept so secret that the people of Louisiana only learned about the change when the new French governor arrived in New Orleans on November 30, 1803. Then within just 20 days, on December 20, 1803, French and American representatives met in New Orleans to sigh papers which sold the Louisiana Territory to the United States. The United States paid France $15 million for the territory, not a very great sum of money considering the vast amount o9f land it included. It became known as Louisiana Purchase.

♧People and Culture of New Orleans

          1. The Creoles and the Anglos

     After the Louisiana Purchase, English-speaking people (Anglo-Americans) first arrived in New Orleans. The French-speaking people there, most of whom were Creoles, were not pleased with the change in power. For some time, there was dislike and competition between the two groups, with each living in different sections of the city. Eventually, through intermarriage and business interaction, New Orleans began its process of Americanization.

    Initially, the term Creole referred to the white descendants of the old French and Spanish families, the original settlers of Louisiana. Later, it referred to any person born in Louisiana, whether black or white or of mixed blood. Today, it most often refers to French-speaking natives of New Orleans and Louisiana as well as to their music and food. Whenever 'Americans hear the word "Creole," they are reminded of the French cultural influence in this part of the country.

    As mentioned before, the Creoles and the Anglos did not get along with each other initially. A comparison of these two cultures at that time shows significant differences, and these differences obviously contributed to their difficulties. First of all, they spoke different languages. French was the language of government, spoke English. Next, although both groups were Christian, the integration of cultures, most Creoles were a mixture of "different" blood, whereas most Anglos were of only "English" blood. As for behavior, the Anglos were more organized, businesslike, and paid attention to such matters as being on time, while the Creoles were more easy-going, pleasure-loving, and relaxed. The Creoles wanted to enjoy "la bonne vie," the good life, and part of this good life can be seen in their cultural traditions of music(jazz) and merrymaking(Mardi Gras) in New Orleans.

2. Jazz

     New Orleans is generally considered the birthplace of Jazz. The origin of this unique form of music is found in African folk music, slave work songs and Negro spirituals, and in the music of the Creoles. Jazz was first heard in the late 1800s being played by black funeral music bands. on the way to the burial, the bands would play sad and mournful music. on the way back, the musicians would try to make the mourners forget their sadness by playing happier music. Although the basic melody stayed the same, the musicians would improvise while they played by adding extra musical notes and making the rhythm livelier. This improvised music was not written down, so their jazz music was probably never  played the same wat twice. It was a liberating music that did not follow the traditional rules. From New Orleans, jazz spread to Chicago and then to New York, where it reached its golden age in the 1920s. Today, jazz is considered one of America's cultural contributions  to the world.

Mardi Gras(In English, Tuesday Fat)

    Another famous cultural tradition of New Orleans is Mardi Gras, a time for merrymaking. This two-week celebration in February was originally held so that Catholics could eat well and enjoy themselves before they began a 40-day period of fasting and sacrifice. Today, strict fasting is no longer required by the Catholic Church, but the citizens of New Orleans still enjoy their Mardi Gras. It is a carnival at which everyone can drink a lot, eat a lot. and have a good time. There are parades all over the city, and people wearing costumes and masks walk along the streets of the old section called the French Quarter. Mardi Gras is also known for its nightly parties and dancing balls throughout the city. Good music and good times are part of the tradition in this city.

    New Orleans has a special place in American history and culture. By its history and its people, the city of New Orleans can represent the mixture of French, Spanish, African, Caribbean, and English cultures, and in many ways, the happy-go-lucky, easy-going, somewhat unruly part of American culture.

☞ CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA:  A NATION DIVIDED

     As the nation expanded from coast to coast, more and more states were added to the Union. When California joined in 1850, it became the 31st State. However, as the nation was growing, trouble was also growing, especially in the South. The trouble centered around two major issues: State's rights and slavery. Although forbidden in the north, slavery played an important role in the economy of the agricultural South, and many Southerners worried that they would be forced by the  central(or federal) government to change their way of life and give up slavery. They were so worried that they wanted to leave the Union, The resulting civil unrest between the Northern and Southern states led to the American Civil War, which lasted from 1861 to 1865. A city that represented the Southern way of life at that time and also played a role in the Civil War is the Small historic city in South Carolina named Charleston.   

   Charleston, a Historic City

    Charleston, South Carolina, was founded in 1670 by English settlers. It had originally been named Charles Town in honor of King Charles of England. Located on a narrow peninsula between the Ashley and Cooper rivers, Charleston is a port city with a fine harbor along the Atlantic coast.

    Today, Charleston is especially well known for the preservation of its historic buildings and the old sections of the city. The past remains alive there with its many houses, churches, and other buildings that date from the 1700s and 1800s. Some of the historic houses with side porches and flowering gardens behind ironwork fences were built by wealthy plantation owners who used to come with their families to the city in the summer. Their plantations, beautifully restored today, are found along the riverbanks north of the city. on one Charleston street stands the Old Slave Mart Museum. In the past, this was the office of slave auctioneers; now it is a museum for African-American arts and crafts.

    Two factors contributed to the preservation of Charleston. The first resulted from the effects of the South's defeat in the Civil War. During the war, Charleston had suffered much physical damage, but in the post-war period, its economy was too weak for reconstruction. Charlestonians, although still proud, were too poor to rebuild their city. so, the city remained unchanged for several decades and this helped to preserve its historic character.

    However, around 1920, new wealth from outside the city arrived and the rich outsiders began to modernize the old neighborhoods. this did not please Charleston;'s citizens, so they joined together in a historic preservation movement. This movement was the 2nd factor that helped to preserve the city. It not only protected the old and historic sections of the city form modernization but also helped to restore their former beauty. Because of the continuing efforts of the citizens' movement, the historic sections of Charleston are still preserved today.

    Slaves in Charleston worked both in the city and in the fields of the surrounding plantations and they contributed greatly to economy of South Carolina. In the 1700s, slaves labored in the rice and indigo fields and in the 1800s, they worked in the cotton fields. Eventually, cotton replaced rice and indigo as the major crop and chief export of South Carolina, and cotton became king in the South. Because of the growing demand for cotton in the world and the invention of the cotton gin in 1793, the need for slaves increased. As the cotton crop spread to more and more plantations, the demand for more slave labor on the plantations spread as well.

    In the city, slaves were better off than those on the plantations. Their general standard of living in Charleston was far superior. They had much better food, health care, clothing, and working conditions. Many worked as house servants; others worked as carpenters, bricklayers, blacksmiths, porters, bakers, and cigar makers.

     As slaves, blacks did not have the same rights as whites. It was illegal to teach them to read or write. It was also illegal for them to marry. However, in some cases, a black man and woman did form  a lasting relationship and raise children, if their white master permitted. This "marriage" could be destroyed at the sudden change of mind or the death of the master. More than one black family in Charleston was torn apart when the master sold the husband to one person and the wife and children to another.

    one activity that whites wanted blacks to participate in was religious worship. From the colonial period, blacks were encouraged to attend religious services in white churches where they most often sat separately. Around 1850, when the black section of churches became a special source of strength for black Americans then, and it has continued to be a strong part of their culture ever since.

CHARLESTON AND  THE CIVIL WAR

    The Civil War, or the War Between the States, (1861-1865) was different from most civil wars in which two or more groups within a country struggle to take control of the federal government. In this case, 11 Southern states fought to become and independent nation, and 21 Northern states (and 2 Westerns states) fought to preserve the Union.

    The two major issues that divided the North and South in 1861 were states' rights and slavery. States' rights are those powers that individual states have; other powers belong to the federal government. The principal disagreement about states' rights between the North and South was whether or not a state had the fight to leave the Union. The North believed a state did not have this right; the South believed it did. The states' rights issue was related to the 2nd issue, slavery.

    In the United States at the time of the Civil War, slavery was legal in 15 states in the agricultural South; the states in the North and West were free states. For the south, slavery was necessary to preserve its way of life. Its economy depended on cheap slave  labor and it did not want any restrictions on slavery. Although the industrial North with ist factories and textile mills favored abolishing slavery, it did not necessarily want to end slavery in the South. What the North wanted was to prohibit the spread of slavery into new states entering the Union, namely, those in the Midwest and West. The South, on the other hand, wanted to allow the spread of  slavery. It held that states' rights would allow the use of slaves in these states. The disagreement over these issues eventually led to the Civil War.

    As a strong believer in slavery and states' rights, Charleston played a role in the Civil War. The war began there on April 12, 1861, when soldiers from the south attacked federal government troops at Fort Sumter in the city's harbor. on that day, the United States become a nation divided.

    Before this attack and the start of the war, there had been, as mentioned above, increasing disagreement between the North and South over the issue of slavery. In fact, since the early 1800s, there had been growing opposition to the practice of slavery, and some efforts to abolish it had begun. When Abraham Lincoln ran for president, he expressed his antislavery views and his opposition to he growth of slavery in the West.

    After Lincoln was elected president in November 1869, many whites in Charleston and throughout the South feared that slaves would begin to revolt and demand freedom, and so they gathered in Charleston to discuss this. At their meeting on December 20, 1860, South Carolina became the first state to leave the Union; other Southern states followed. Four months later in April 1861, the war began in Charleston harbor. Four years after that in April 1865, it ended in Virginia when the North defeated the South.

The Beginning of the civil  rights movement

    Before the end of the Civil War, however, President Lincoln signed a legal document freeing all slaves living within the rebellious Southern states. This famous document is known as the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863. After the war, the freedom of slaves and the protection  of their civil rights became part of the U.S. Constitution in the form of amendments. In late 1865, the states approved the 13th Amendment to the Constitution which abolished slavery. The 14th Amendment, approved in 1868, guaranteed blacks the rights of all citizens. These rights include life, liberty, ownership of property, and equal protection under the law. The 15th Amendment, approved in 1870,  protected the right of blacks to vote.

    The three amendments were only the beginning of the movement to protect the civil rights of blacks and other minorities and to fight against discrimination in the Unite States. In fact, it took another 100 years of struggle for the rights given in the 14th and 15th Amendments to be enjoyed by all its citizens. Charleston, like other Southers cities, was slow in bringing about changes without violence. The civil rights movement has advanced slowly. It still continues to this day.