Overview of Early American History
Copyright © 2009 Henry J. Sage
A Beginning, A Middle and an End
Early American history is a story with the beginning, a middle and an end. The story has a plot, full of conflict, resolution, more conflict and more resolution. Since we know the end of the story, as it was in 1865, the dramatic tension for us may be slight. But at the time, the outcome was very uncertain, and in no way was any of it inevitable. In the beginning they came—in a trickle at first, and then a growing tide of humanity escaping from the frustrations of life in the old country. They saw—they liked what they saw, and more came and spread inward and up and down the coasts, along rivers, into the valleys and over the mountains. They conquered—they conquered their loneliness, they conquered the land, they conquered the rivers and the fields and the forests, and they conquered the natives. And within 150 years the first part of the American story was ending, and a new chapter was beginning |
The Plot Thickens
The second part of the story is that of revolution, which began when the frustrations of Europe reached America’s shores. The new country in the old country had parted ways—partly because of distance and the newness of life in America, but also because the old systems did not work here. Life was different, labor was more valuable, land more plentiful, opportunities less restricted. Although the differences between the Old World and the New were not at first irreconcilable, they were sharp. Had relations been managed better from the British side, and had Americans been less impatient, things might have been resolve peacefully, although the eventual independence of America over time must be seen as having been inevitable. In any case, the protest began, spread to open defiance and finally to armed rebellion, and the war came.
The revolutionary war was not the bloodiest in American history in absolute terms, but in terms of its impact on the population, the percentage of people who participated and died, it was a great war. It was fought badly for the most part on both sides, and although George Washington was not a great general on the model of Napoleon or Caesar or Lee, he managed to hold the cause together until the British tired of the game. With help from the French and pressure from the other European nations, the British let go of their rebellious cousins.
The second part of this chapter was the creation of a government and a nation. Compared with conditions which have accompanied most modern revolutions, the Americans had the extraordinary luxury of a period of six years during which Europe ignored the new nation. Absent any threats from without, America was allowed to find its own constitutional destiny. The original government created, the Articles of Confederation, could not have lasted as the nation expanded—there was too little power at the center; something more substantial, more permanent, more profound was required, and in Philadelphia in 1787 what has been called a “miracle” was wrought, and the Constitution was written.
Under Washington’s leadership the new ship of state found its way, though the waters were often rough and choppy. Turmoil erupted in Europe just as the new government under the Constitution began, and the French revolutionary and Napoleonic wars threatened the stability of the nation, But with firm hands on the helm, the ship kept on course and did not founder.
The first great test came in 1800, when political power changed hands peaceably for the first time in the modern world. So tense had been the politics in the 1790's that at least one historian has opined that the nation might have descended into Civil War had Jefferson's Republicans not won the election of 1800. With that victory a new phase of American history began—the Jeffersonian-Jacksonian era.
During Jefferson’s two terms as president the nation spread and prospered, but also slowly drifted towards war. His successor, James Madison, challenged the British, and the War of 1812, sometimes called the second war for independence, was fought. Again, it was fought badly if valiantly by the Americans, but the British, fatigued from years of struggling against Napoleon, were willing to call it quits with after having punished the Americans by burning their capital.
Then follow what has become known as the “era of good feelings,” although sectional tensions over economic issues, including slavery, were developing underneath the placid surface. In 1828 a new revolution was underway. The “Age of Jackson” is also known as the age of the common man—American democracy spread from wealthy landowners to virtually all adult white males. During the 1820s and 30s American democracy move forward at a steady pace, even as it left women and blacks behind. In 1831 Alexis de Tocqueville visited America and wrote his famous “Democracy in America,” an explanatory history of the nation which emphasized the spirit of egalitarianism that pervaded everything American, with the notable exception of slavery.
The final chapter in early American history began with expansion, which led to further struggles over slavery and how to deal with the peculiar institution. War with Mexico expanded the country to the coast and opened new areas of conflict. The most difficult issue to resolve—largely because it was embedded in the Constitution—continued to be slavery. Through the 1850s virtually every public issue of national import was related to it, and as 1860 approached, the tension on both sides became unbearable.
The election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860 signaled the beginning of the end of early American history, and the greatest war our nation has ever indulged in began. It was fought with the ferocity only possible when brother fights brother and friend fights friend. The devastation in the South was enormous, the losses grievous on both sides, but in 1865 the end of the end came when Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox.
Thus the first half of American history drew to a close, and as northerners and Southerners buried their dead, they looked ahead to new and unforeseen challenges as America entered the modern world.