Hello. It’s our first reading of the school year! I’m sure many of you are interested, but not entirely sure about what you’ve got yourself into. I can tell you honestly that this class can be one of the greatest experiences you’ll have in high school, but it can also be an enormous amount of work. Most likely it will be differing degrees of each of those two statements. So, where do we begin?
I am going to post thoughts, questions and tasks here for each night’s reading assignment. Sometimes I will have websites for you to view and other times I will include podcasts for you to listen to and review. I’ll also link to interesting images, documents and other material on the online textbook site. Still on other occasions, I will have questions here for you to answer. We’ll build on these online discussions in class.
STRUCTURING COLONIAL GOVERNMENTS (146) Today, we begin with the development of political systems in the colonies. Let’s take a look at some charged statements in the reading. In the beginning of your reading, the text states that “Government existed to protect life, liberty and property.” It’s an interesting theory concerning political science, but not one that exists entirely independent of the time period in which it existed. Which is the more important of the three? Which applied more to the colonies?
The text also goes on to describe how the British blended three forms of government: monarchy, aristocracy, and democracy. Each represented hopes and dangers. To what extent did the colonies reflect each of these types of government?
On the top of page 147, there is a table describing the ‘colonial foundations of the American political system’. As you read through the list of political documents, do you wonder if there was a pattern to these ideas? Did we become more democratic, or was that something that had to be forced on a society, rather than evolve on its own?
THE CROWD IN ACTION (147) Well, this is an interesting way of describing colonial government in action. Why do you think that the authors chose to include this story? Do you think that they were trying to soften you up for the next chapter on the revolution by proving that this sentiment was nothing new? It’s also interesting to notice the relationship here between political and military power. “The militia refused to respond”, the book states. I wonder why. Were they revolutionaries, or did they just choose to not take sides? Listen to the argument too… Sam Adams is defiant against British authority and ‘arbitrary power’ claiming that Bostonians had ‘natural rights’. What about the natural rights of slaves? Why was he silent on this topic, but not his own cause? Think about it.
THE GROWING POWER OF ASSEMBLIES (148) Your text states that ‘elected assemblies gradually transformed themselves into governing bodies reflecting the interests of the electorate’. Hm. If this is true, then perhaps a political system is not something that is stagnant. Perhaps it is something that responds to external and internal forces – and grows over time. What does that mean for the colonies themselves? What are the strongest influences on their growth and change? Taxes? Wars? Rebellions? Profit? Empire? It’s something to consider.
LOCAL POLITICS (149) One of the most important points that I noted in this section (and I’m sure you did as well) is that there is a connection between class issues (economic division) and political influence. Notice that it is the lower classes that are demanding more accountability from their government? Do you think this is still the same today, or does the upper class have more political influence? Also notice the regional differences here in the colonies between the political coalitions and deal-making that goes on at the local level between town meetings and county courts and legislatures. Can you see elements of the Civil War societies taking shape here in the colonies?
THE SPREAD OF WHIG IDEOLOGY (149) What’s a ‘whig’? Well, it’s a person who supports republican government over the power of the monarchy and aristocracy. It’s hard to imagine now, but this was a completely new phenomenon. Notice what the text states as the ‘best defense against concentrated power’? These are the same elements of the revolution and they are very radical for the 1700′s. The text also goes on to describe the power of the press. But this can be confusing. It’s not that the press merely provided people with information. It provided a diversity of information. Think of the blogosphere today. You also meet Zenger. He’s in most US History texts because his is the first case concerning the limits of the press to speak freely. It’s also a moment in history that is more about planting seeds than seeing results. Not much changes then, but in a couple of decades, America would explore – and the press would be behind almost all of it.
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