Full transcript
0:01hey everyone welcome back today we're
0:03going to continue our discussion of the
0:05american revolution
0:07and we're going to start with the
0:09declaration of independence today
0:12um
0:14with the declaration of independence we
0:15have a very unusual situation
0:18we have a country
0:20starting from scratch
0:22as i've suggested before i think it's
0:25easy for us to take for granted
0:28what form that government is going to
0:31take
0:32all of us are familiar with the form of
0:35government that we have in the united
0:37states and i think it's easy for us to
0:39take for granted how successful that
0:43form of government would be
0:45um
0:46but it wasn't always that obvious
0:50it certainly wasn't that obvious to
0:52people
0:53at the time um these people at the time
0:58thought perhaps
0:59they would be successful they hoped they
1:01would be successful but in a sense it
1:03might be
1:04just as likely that they would be hung
1:07as traitors in the end
1:10things could have gone very differently
1:12even if we have
1:14a successful revolution
1:17royalty
1:18aristocracy there were certainly people
1:21who would have advocated
1:22for those elements in society and
1:24government but
1:27what we have here
1:29is like i said a unique set of
1:31circumstances we declare ourselves
1:33independent from britain
1:35now what
1:36in the words of thomas paine
1:38we have in our power to begin the world
1:42over again so for pain and for many
1:45others this is a very momentous occasion
1:49uh the time to really
1:52perhaps
1:53um change
1:55society to change the political dynamics
1:58of the western world
2:00and so we start with the declaration
2:04right this very hallowed sacred document
2:07that thomas jefferson wrote
2:10and of course the declaration
2:13starts out
2:15with thomas jefferson making a case for
2:18a socio-political
2:21order that is based in equality right
2:24that all men are created equal and
2:26endowed by their creator with certain
2:29inalienable rights among them are life
2:32liberty and the pursuit of happiness so
2:35this is a political statement those
2:37words we've heard so often in some ways
2:40they might become somewhat cliche to us
2:43but this was a really earth-shattering
2:46statement in this time and we're going
2:49to parse that statement later who is
2:51equal who does that statement apply to
2:54but again for now let's just acknowledge
2:57the boldness of that statement in a
2:59world of kings and nobility to
3:02acknowledge that people should have
3:04equal participation in government that's
3:08big
3:09to suggest that people who are
3:11unhappy with their form of government
3:13have a right to change that government
3:16that is big and so
3:18that's in essence after we get past
3:21the very famous language at the start of
3:24the document that's in essence what the
3:25declaration of independence is it's a
3:28laundry list of grievances the colonists
3:31have against the king
3:33of course taxation without
3:35representation
3:37is the one we're all familiar with um
3:39but there's lots of
3:42usurpations
3:44and abuses of power that are listed in
3:47the document and so
3:49the question is we've declared
3:51independence now what do we do well
3:53what's this government going to look
3:55like well
3:57first of all
3:58probably most of you have heard of the
4:00articles of confederation this is the
4:02first
4:03national government
4:06the founders start
4:08embarking on drafting that document
4:10pretty much right away after the
4:12declaration but it's going to take a
4:14long time for it to be officially
4:16approved and we'll talk about
4:19the virtues and weaknesses of that
4:21government later on
4:23um but the really big question is
4:26the power
4:28of the national government versus the
4:30states
4:31um where do people fall on that spectrum
4:34which should have more power
4:37uh and there this is of course a moment
4:39when people really fear the abuse of
4:42power they see
4:44executive power placed in the hands of a
4:47king
4:48who does not want to share that power
4:51and so as a result
4:54colonists are very jealous of their
4:56rights
4:57at the local level and so we can see
5:00this play out
5:01in state constitutions every state is
5:05going to create a constitution of its
5:07own and in essence what's going to
5:09happen is every state is going to have a
5:12referendum
5:13on where power should re reside how
5:16close
5:17to the people should power reside
5:22and so just some of the issues that
5:24we're going to deal with here
5:26um and i don't want to get too bogged
5:28down in the details uh even though these
5:30next couple slides are kind of detail
5:32heavy but simple or complex government
5:34are we going to have uh you know sort of
5:37a complex
5:39sort of system of checks and balances or
5:42is it going to be pretty straightforward
5:44in terms of who has what power
5:47what about the proximity of government
5:50to the people how often are the people
5:53going to have a say on either
5:55legislation or the people who are
5:58involved in the law making process is it
6:00going to be
6:01frequent like every year every two years
6:04or
6:05uh every six years or is somebody going
6:07to be elected for life basically in
6:09which their accountability to the people
6:12sort of vanishes once they're elected
6:14uh is one branch of the government going
6:17to be
6:18top top-heavy so to speak is much of the
6:21power going to be invested or vested
6:23with the legislature or will it be with
6:26the executive
6:27and then
6:29who
6:30is going to vote what's the role of
6:33property there are many many
6:35people in this era who feel like you
6:37should have a stake in government before
6:40you're able to actually have a say
6:43in government so what happens if
6:46everybody has the right to vote what
6:49kind of government is this going to lead
6:50to long term and so that's a question
6:53too and so
6:55this comes down in some ways to two very
6:58different visions of government we have
7:01uh in thomas
7:02payne's pamphlet common sense he does
7:05sort of outline for us what he thinks a
7:08government should look like and it is
7:10not surprisingly very democratic uh
7:14very
7:15invested with power for the ordinary
7:18people
7:19whereas john adams is a little more
7:21cautious a little more restrained a
7:23little more mistrustful of your average
7:26joe in this era and so if we look at two
7:30constitutions at the state level so
7:34these are states who are coming up with
7:35their own system of government so we're
7:38going to look at pennsylvania which kind
7:40of follows thomas payne's vision
7:43and then we'll look at massachusetts
7:44which is more along the lines of what
7:47john adams and john adams of course
7:48being from massachusetts this is what he
7:51would have preferred so
7:53pennsylvania
7:55a unicameral legislature elected
7:57annually so a one-body house right so
8:01not a house of representatives in a
8:03senate or anything like that just one
8:06legislative body they're elected every
8:09year so think about how accountable they
8:12are every year is going to be a
8:14referendum on how they voted in the last
8:18year
8:19and that's done by intention the
8:21executive power we do not have a
8:23governor at all instead we have a
8:26council of people
8:27um and laws are not enacted in a single
8:30session
8:31so
8:32this in essence gives the people veto
8:35power right you elect a legislature they
8:38pass a law you don't like
8:40well
8:41you vote the next time around the very
8:43next year for the people who promise to
8:46um
8:47repeal or not vote for that particular
8:50piece of legislation or that law
8:52so
8:53in essence this makes it very hard to
8:55get things done but that's by design
8:57here the idea is that the people should
9:00be the final arbiter when it comes to
9:03the laws that they're being asked to
9:05abide by and then finally
9:07term limits
9:09politicians in this
9:11design can only serve from four to seven
9:14years in office depending on what office
9:16they're holding so
9:18nothing would seem close to a lifetime
9:20appointment appointment no career
9:23politicians you do your service and then
9:26pretty much you're finished
9:29massachusetts on the other hand a couple
9:31of years later
9:33we see a very different model we see a
9:35model where
9:38towns elect
9:40the assembly so we're not talking about
9:42a popular vote here necessarily um
9:46we're talking about you know
9:48people who are divided based on the
9:50region that they live in
9:53and
9:54we have a senate then so we have a
9:56bicameral legislature here so a senate
9:59that's rooted in property interests so
10:02the idea would be that
10:06if you were going to run for the senate
10:07you have a very different set of
10:09qualifications than somebody who's
10:11maybe elected to the assembly to suggest
10:15that the senate is the more prestigious
10:18or distinguished house and as a result
10:20you should probably have
10:23more property more wealth in order to
10:26hold a seat in the massachusetts state
10:29senate
10:31apportionment of representatives is
10:33based on places with the highest tax
10:35base so it's not based on population
10:38instead
10:39how wealthy are the particular people in
10:42a given area um if you have a lot of
10:45people in say
10:47a town on the outskirts of boston that
10:50are extraordinarily wealthy there may
10:53not be a lot of people there but they
10:54own a lot of land well they're probably
10:56going to have more representation
10:58and then finally a governor that's
11:01elected
11:03every year with veto power so a stronger
11:06executive here that really sort of
11:09serves as a check on the legislature so
11:12very different than what we see in
11:14pennsylvania so the pattern that exists
11:18is really
11:20kind of early on we see state
11:21constitutions like pennsylvania
11:24but within a couple of years
11:26these state constitutions become more
11:30like massachusetts they become a bit
11:32more
11:33conservative
11:34so we could think again if we try to
11:37pose that question of how radical was
11:40the american revolution well
11:42if we look at state constitutions
11:45they start out to be fairly radical
11:49but
11:50as time moves forward
11:52people become more cautious more weary
11:56of giving too much power to the people
11:59so property requirements in some way
12:02serve as a limit on that radicalism
12:06so
12:08let's switch gears though so
12:10building state governments is one thing
12:13though
12:13and with revolutions you always have
12:16intended consequences right the intended
12:19the major intended consequence here is
12:22independence from great britain but
12:24there's also lots of unintended
12:26consequences that we can look at too
12:29and historians like to use the term
12:33the contagion of liberty to
12:36explain how this revolution becomes
12:39something else over time it begins over
12:42taxation but what does it become
12:45down the road
12:47um and so there's several aspects that
12:50we could look at here that are really
12:53important and one of those is the idea
12:56of religious liberty
12:59so
13:00every nation in europe
13:04uh almost all of them have particular
13:07religious affiliations i think we've
13:09said this before
13:11um they may not out and out forbid
13:14other religions but
13:16if you want to be one of those who are
13:19in power
13:20then
13:21you should probably conform to the state
13:24religion
13:25uh if you're content to perhaps always
13:29be a second class citizen to have no
13:31opportunities for jobs and government to
13:34ha perhaps have to worship more secretly
13:36or something like that
13:38to not openly profess your religion
13:41then
13:42um you know that's
13:44probably the consequences of what you
13:46have to live with
13:48now the united states early on and this
13:51is a legacy that we see established
13:54derived from some of the colonies we
13:57talked about the middle colonies in
13:58particular these colonies have no sort
14:01of official religion a religious
14:05a religion that's sponsored by the state
14:08and so this carries over into
14:11the revolution as well and we see
14:15in particular
14:16virginia very early on establishing an
14:20act of religious freedom so this is also
14:24something that is authored by thomas
14:27jefferson
14:28and this eliminates religious
14:30requirements for voting or for office
14:33holding it says no government support of
14:35churches
14:37governments cannot
14:40force people into a kind of religious
14:42conformity and so virginia then serves
14:45as a model of religious
14:47religious liberty going forward it
14:49provides a basis
14:51for separating church and state and so
14:55today we may not feel like that is
14:58necessarily a big deal but again if we
15:00view this within the framework of the
15:0218th century and the old issues of
15:05protestants versus catholics
15:09you know people killing each other over
15:11religion since time immemorial
15:14now we have this very firm basis for
15:17separating church and state
15:20who's government going to favor
15:22government's going to favor nobody when
15:24it comes to religion and so we see the
15:26united states here making a very very
15:30decisive break from old european models
15:33at this point so
15:35we could say that's one avenue where we
15:38see this contagion of liberty this idea
15:40of liberty the idea of equality and
15:43freedom
15:44um
15:45spilling into other areas that people
15:47hadn't thought about before and so of
15:50course the next area
15:52is slavery and this one is
15:55really tricky right
15:57we have
15:59again thomas jefferson
16:02who is this
16:03uh the author of the constitution or the
16:05author of the declaration of the
16:07independence the author as i said of
16:10this bill establishing religious freedom
16:13one of the most prominent founding
16:15fathers
16:16but also a man who owned more than a
16:20hundred slaves and he wrestles with the
16:24issue of slavery his entire life
16:27and
16:28within the last say 20 years it's become
16:33pretty conclusive
16:35probably many of you know this already
16:37but it's pretty conclusive that thomas
16:39jefferson
16:41fathered children with one of his slaves
16:44sally hamming so that's something else
16:47we have to keep in mind
16:49as we evaluate the man and his political
16:52beliefs and his character and so forth
16:54and if we stop and think about it
16:57jefferson writes these words all men are
16:59created equal
17:01but he and many others
17:03actually
17:04compare the condition of the colonists
17:08um
17:09as slaves who are under the yoke of
17:13tyranny with great britain so this is a
17:15form of rhetoric that's employed right
17:17against the british
17:19and
17:21this makes some people uncomfortable
17:24uh you know on the one hand here we are
17:27uh
17:28claiming that we are being held in
17:30bondage to the british empire
17:33and yet we're doing the same thing some
17:35colonists are really uncomfortable with
17:38that contradiction
17:40and you have people like
17:42the british
17:44essayist samuel johnson
17:48noticing the same thing here this very
17:51famous quote how is it that we hear the
17:53loudest yelps for liberty among the
17:56drivers of negros so this is a tough
17:59tough situation tough for thomas
18:01jefferson to be sure
18:03and of course you're reading an excerpt
18:06from thomas jefferson's notes on the
18:08state of virginia
18:10and
18:11just a little context here in terms of
18:13what you're looking at this is
18:15jefferson's one and only book
18:18he decides around this same time period
18:20that he needs to introduce virginia to
18:22the world
18:23and so
18:25this book is serves as
18:27sort of
18:28a primer to what the state of virginia
18:31what its
18:33virtues are what it has to offer the
18:35outside world and so forth and it also
18:38has room for his
18:40somewhat philosophical meditations as
18:42well so he talks about farming he talks
18:45about climate environment culture
18:48um but he also talks about slavery and
18:51he talks about race
18:54and
18:55this man as you'll see
18:57in your reading who talks about equality
19:01also takes a very scientific approach to
19:05studying the african-american people
19:08that he sees
19:10on his plantation at monticello
19:13and offering his views and saying for
19:16various reasons that hopefully we can
19:19talk about for various reasons he
19:21believes the african race to be inferior
19:25now we can certainly question
19:28uh the limitations or the cultural
19:30biases of jefferson's viewpoints here
19:34but
19:35how can we reconcile
19:38this political rhetoric with this more
19:41philosophical meditative
19:44writings on race and slavery that he
19:47opens up about in his book
19:49and of course
19:51he doesn't like slavery
19:54even though he has slaves even though
19:56he's going to go to his grave not
19:58freeing his slaves
20:01but at the same time he doesn't really
20:03know how to get rid of slavery um
20:06jefferson is an idealist in some way
20:09he's not really successful at
20:11considering
20:13those questions
20:15uh of policy he's not really
20:18i think comfortable with the the give
20:20and take the the you know the dirty
20:23daily existence of politics he'd rather
20:25have his head
20:27in the clouds
20:28so to speak but this is a hard question
20:32uh for um the founding fathers and i
20:36think you know this is the legacy that
20:38we're left with today this is a an image
20:40that you see here
20:41uh this came out a couple of years ago
20:44you have john trumbull's famous painting
20:47of the declaration of independence at
20:48signing in philadelphia
20:51and
20:52a chicago documentary maker put dots
20:55over the faces of the men who were slave
20:59holders and
21:01if we were to count up those dots if we
21:03were to count up the founding fathers
21:05something like 34 of the 47
21:09owned slaves at one point or another in
21:11their lives
21:13um including benjamin franklin who we
21:16cannot see here because his face is
21:18covered by a dot
21:20including thomas jefferson
21:23including of course
21:25john hancock and others
21:28and so this is
21:31something
21:32that
21:34we have to wrestle with right
21:37is this something that should be
21:39widely known and discussed or is this a
21:41detail that perhaps
21:43we should
21:44just push to the side
21:46and this sort of thing
21:48was controversial when it came out
21:52and to be sure i should also say that
21:54even amongst those people who were slave
21:56holders at this particular moment
21:59some of them
22:00later renounced their views on slavery
22:03including benjamin franklin benjamin
22:05franklin owned slaves
22:07i think about six or eight of them for
22:09most of his adult life
22:12and then towards the end we could say
22:14that he saw the light he became
22:18a very outspoken abolitionist in his
22:20last couple of years but
22:22the question is what do we do with this
22:25institution
22:26and
22:28what takes place is
22:30in the north we see a movement
22:34afoot to basically end slavery
22:37slowly and this is an extremely slow
22:40process in most places states like
22:43vermont
22:44abolish slavery really quickly in its
22:47state constitution in 1777
22:51but by
22:521804 all northern states had voted to
22:55abolish the institution of slavery
22:57within their borders
22:59but
23:00most of them have adopted a gradual
23:04process of emancipation
23:07the idea in the case of pennsylvania for
23:10instance
23:11when it adopted gradual emancipation in
23:131780
23:15said
23:16that um
23:17people would be held if you were born
23:20after a certain date
23:23you would be held in bondage till your
23:2528th birthday at which point you would
23:28be free
23:30so
23:31this is not something that changes
23:33overnight
23:35and we see the continued enslavement of
23:38african americans
23:40in the north for quite some time
23:42new jersey in 1800 had about 12 000
23:46slaves
23:49it passed its gradual emancipation act
23:51in 1804 as well
23:54um freeing
23:55uh female slaves at 21 and male slaves
23:58at 25
24:00but even on the verge of the civil war
24:02in the census in 1860 new jersey still
24:06has 18 quote-unquote apprentices for
24:09life
24:10um
24:12according to the census at that time so
24:15they're basically
24:16legal slaves this
24:18persistence of inequality
24:21in spite of the calls for freedom
24:23is a slow and tortuous process in the
24:27north it's quick in new england or
24:29quicker in new england and i think it's
24:31fair to say
24:32there's no real economic importance for
24:34slavery there
24:36in the mid-atlantic it's not as vital as
24:38it is in the south obviously
24:41but it's more vital it has some economic
24:44importance there is urban slavery that
24:46exists in places like new york city and
24:49philadelphia
24:50and so
24:52you know we can pat certain states on on
24:54the head for uh you know doing this
24:57rather quickly but at the same time it's
24:59a lot easier to do
25:01if there are no economic entanglements
25:05and so
25:06um
25:08this like i said is an institution that
25:10dies in the north and you can see here
25:13just
25:14how slow its death is in some places
25:17again
25:18much
25:19more swift in new england than it is in
25:22places like new york new jersey
25:24pennsylvania delaware and maryland
25:27actually
25:29retained slavery slavery is legal in
25:32those places all the way up until the
25:34civil war but i think we can see
25:37that the institution there over time
25:42becomes less crucial to their economy as
25:45well it probably if the civil war hadn't
25:47have come along it would have taken a
25:49little while
25:50um but those states probably would have
25:52done away with slavery on their own too
25:56so what about women
25:58women also hear
26:00these cries for liberty and independence
26:03and women want to do their part in the
26:06war as well we see them
26:09making political sacrifices they boycott
26:12british goods
26:14this is
26:15you know something we may not think of
26:17as as very serious or decisive but it is
26:20a political act
26:22women are the ones who are in charge of
26:24purchasing goods in a lot of family
26:26situations they're the ones who are in
26:28charge
26:30of buying say textiles or cloth maybe to
26:33make clothes
26:35and if they're not going to buy that
26:37kind of thing then they need to spin
26:40and weave cloth
26:42because british manufactured goods are
26:44being boycotted so this is something
26:47of a political act they're also drafting
26:50petitions they're participating in mass
26:53political events
26:55um
26:56we have women who are signing petitions
26:59that are declaring their allegiance to
27:01the american cause in 1780
27:04in philadelphia for instance six women
27:07apparently
27:08created an amazingly successful campaign
27:11to raise money to equip american troops
27:15and in just a couple of weeks they
27:18raised roughly three hundred thousand
27:21dollars so
27:22that's the sort of thing that we see
27:24from politically active women we also
27:27know stories of women participating
27:30in battle right participating in combat
27:33molly pitcher who you see here in this
27:36image a very famous
27:38uh
27:39folk hero in us history her real name
27:42was mary hayes
27:44she supposedly
27:46after her father or after her
27:49husband was struck down
27:51wounded
27:52she stopped carrying water to the
27:55soldiers and you can see in the image
27:56there her spilled bucket and assumed her
27:58husband's place at the cannon
28:01so george washington at one point
28:04praised what he called the women of the
28:06army the women who served as nurses and
28:09cooks and laundresses
28:11but also
28:13members of the regular army who were
28:15subject to
28:17discipline in the same way
28:19other soldiers were as well
28:22and then of course we have
28:25abigail adams
28:26in the months before the declaration
28:29writing to her husband
28:31asking him to remember the ladies
28:34she says and she is
28:37after she runs through the list of
28:39things that she's doing she runs through
28:41her awareness of the british army and
28:43its whereabouts and so forth
28:46she basically says to him
28:49this is a new age i think as you're
28:52with your fellow
28:54american patriots down there in virginia
28:57you should contemplate
28:59um
29:00declaring independence
29:03and and not not just declaring
29:04independence but
29:06giving women the right to vote
29:08and of course he writes back and with a
29:10somewhat sort of mocking or joking
29:14tone and suggest oh you women all have
29:16already have all the power anyways um so
29:19he's somewhat dismissive of that this
29:21but i think what it does show us
29:24is that women were not just silently
29:26standing by here uh in fact many of them
29:30wanted to vote and in at least one state
29:33i think we can say
29:35that they did vote
29:38um
29:39so women are
29:42in the state of new jersey
29:44there is a loophole early on
29:48that has gender neutral language
29:52that says that if you meet a 50-pound
29:55requirement if you own 50 pounds of
29:58property or more
30:01you're able to vote
30:03the language is
30:05obscure
30:06and some women are able to use this as a
30:09loophole so we've talked before about
30:12the idea of coverage or fema covert
30:15right the idea of once a woman marries
30:18what she brings with her into the
30:21marriage whether it be
30:23property or money
30:25is essentially covered by the husband
30:28she owns nothing more so
30:31in most cases women would not have the
30:35ability to declare that they own 50
30:37pounds of property because what is
30:39theirs is their husbands now
30:41there's a distinction legally if you
30:44were fem soul or
30:47alone
30:48the idea if you were a widow or a woman
30:52who never married
30:54then that property would be
30:58yours nobody else could have claim to it
31:02and then if it was worth more than 50
31:05pounds you would have the right to vote
31:08and so
31:09the state of new jersey actually goes so
31:12far in 1790 when it clarifies or when it
31:16revises its state constitution to
31:19include the words he or she
31:22so they're clearing up that ambiguity
31:24that existed in the earlier version and
31:27now
31:27explicitly saying if you meet the
31:29property requirements women can vote too
31:33and so
31:34not just women
31:36it's fair to say also that
31:38african americans if they meet the
31:41property requirement can vote too and so
31:44here is a page
31:47from a poll list from
31:50somerset county new jersey
31:53in which we can see evidence of this
31:56this is some uh polis that have been
31:58discovered relatively recently
32:01and we can see here
32:02up at the top
32:04it says
32:06i think it's ephraim hagerman and it
32:08says right above his name it says negro
32:10so this man evidently met the property
32:13requirement
32:16and then
32:17we also have women voters we have three
32:21in a row here
32:23uh together
32:24part of being a good historian is being
32:27able to
32:28discern handwriting
32:30um so i'm not even able to do this now
32:33i've seen the actual names before but i
32:34think it's like lighty van arsdale
32:38mariah sutton
32:40and
32:41liv sutton i believe right here three in
32:43a row there's other women on this
32:47poll list as well i believe there's
32:49another one right here
32:51margaret somebody uh mary davis
32:56so um a couple of instances of women
32:59showing up and and it seems like showing
33:01up together right showing up uh in force
33:05um declaring their property value and
33:07voting in this particular election in
33:11this particular
33:12polling precinct something like 14
33:16of the people who actually voted were
33:19women
33:20so
33:20this is an interesting time we think we
33:25tend to think of women not having the
33:27right to vote
33:29until the early 20th century for the
33:32most part
33:33but here we have an instance in new
33:35jersey where this was not the case
33:38sadly though
33:40over time there is an effort to roll
33:44back
33:44these rights to take the voting rights
33:48away from women and what we see in the
33:51state of new jersey
33:53is that all white men are universally
33:57enfranchised
33:58they do away with the property
34:00requirement but
34:01african-american men
34:04and women
34:05in general
34:07lose the right to vote and of course
34:10they do not regain it
34:11until
34:12the passing of the 19th amendment in
34:151920. this is a trend we'll talk about
34:18this trend later on but the idea of
34:21disenfranchising african-american voters
34:23who could vote
34:25previously had the right to vote
34:27changes
34:28but we'll consider that
34:30later on
34:32so
34:33um what is
34:34the the true calling of women in a
34:38republican society if it's not for them
34:41to be political and of course
34:45many men would have told you
34:48that
34:50what
34:51a republican nation or what a republic
34:54needs is a woman who's well educated
34:59so she can educate her children so she
35:02can train them to be solid republican
35:05citizens
35:07for a republic to survive
35:10for a form of government
35:12that invests power with people
35:15voters need to be informed
35:18educated and virtuous and it's the
35:20woman's job to instill
35:24those values
35:25in children and so you often hear this
35:27term in the say the late 1700s early
35:301800s republican motherhood
35:33the idea that women have this very large
35:37role
35:38in preparing the next generation
35:41of male citizens in particular
35:44um
35:46the idea that
35:48if you're going to be a good voter in
35:50this society
35:52a good citizen has to bury their own
35:54self-interest and think
35:56in terms of the good of the nation
35:59so
36:01as we get to the end of the war here i'm
36:03gonna skip over all of the the battles
36:05and the fighting and so forth uh
36:08probably many of you know the last major
36:11battle of the revolutionary war
36:14comes at uh
36:16the battle of yorktown in 1781
36:20and we have
36:22the the surrender of lord cornwallis's
36:25army there
36:26and
36:27it's at that point the british
36:30informally decide they're going to start
36:32negotiating a piece
36:34it doesn't mean that the war is won in
36:36that particular moment
36:38it doesn't necessarily even mean that
36:40there's a ceasefire there's this kind of
36:41fuzzy period
36:43in which there's still this sizeable
36:45british force in america
36:48um
36:49even though they're not really actively
36:53prosecuting the war anymore so it's not
36:56until june
36:58of the next year 1782
37:00that we see peace negotiations begin in
37:03paris and then finally the ratification
37:06of the treaty of paris in 1783
37:09and at that point the british government
37:12agrees to acknowledge the sovereignty
37:15of all of the states that were in
37:18rebellion
37:19and they agreed to evacuate all of their
37:22royal troops from american soil
37:26and in turn
37:28the americans promise
37:30that they will compensate loyalists for
37:32property loss during the war and they
37:35also agree that
37:37british creditors would be able to
37:39collect their pre-war debts too
37:41so
37:42this is
37:44a proud moment to be sure it's a time
37:47when we see
37:49independence
37:50achieved
37:51but it comes at a high price as well
37:55and
37:56the question then is what kind of
37:58society is the united states going to
38:01become
38:03what kind of government are we going to
38:05see in this new nations how much power
38:08is the federal government going to
38:10possess
38:11how much power the state government's
38:14going to possess and so these are
38:16questions that we're going to address in
38:20low lectures to come and so
38:23just as one final observation here
38:26that's really kind of important
38:28is
38:29george washington leader of the
38:31continental army
38:32what does he do when the war is over
38:35well he turns in his sword he resigns
38:38his commission and this may seem to us
38:40not a really big deal today
38:42but he won the war
38:44um traditionally speaking he would have
38:46been able to claim whatever title or
38:49whatever spoils he wanted if he wanted
38:51to be king for life
38:53uh
38:54by the rules of the day he probably
38:56could have done that but he shows his
39:00own willingness to bury his own
39:02self-interest by handing in his
39:04commission and going back to his farm at
39:07mount vernon in virginia so we'll stop
39:10there then for today and next time then
39:14we'll consider
39:16the drafting of the constitution so
39:19until next time be well