American Beginnings

flyflyspiritUID: 27889

Author:zhu yongtao from the book (The Society and Culture of major English-speaking Countries)
my declaration: it is me that typed this article myself, so donot ZZ without my permmision. hehe

What is an American? This had become a classic question asked not only by foreigners visiting the United States, but more often by American themselves. When Americans feel confused or when they are in a crisis, they ask who they are and try to find out what being an American means. In fact, this famous question was first asked by a Frenchman called J.Hector St. john de Crevecoeur who settled in Pennsylvania in the 18th century. In 1782, this French farmer published a book in London entitled Letters from an American Farmer in which he posed the question and answered it himself: “what then is the American, this new man? He is either a European, or the descendant of a European, hence that strange mixture of blood, which you will find in no other country. I could point out to you a family whose grandfather was an Englishman, whose wife was Dutch, whose son married a French woman, and whose present four sons have now four wives of different nations. He is an American, who leaving behind him all his ancient prejudices and manners, receives new ones from the new mode of life he has embraced, the new government he obeys, and the new rank he holds.…Here individuals of all nations are melted into a new race of men, whose labors and posterity will one day cause great change s in the word.…The American is a new man, who acts upon new principles; he must therefore entertain new ideas, and form new opinions… this is an American.” According to Crevecoeur, the American in those days had the mixed blood of European or their descendants without taking into consideration other nationalities such as American Indians and blacks. Today, the picture of an American is more complex. In American families, there may be sons-in-law or daughters-in-law with European descendant or Afro-American or Asian immigrants although there mixed blood families of whites with other blacks or Asians are in the minority. To understand this American, lets us go back to American past.
A New Land
The American continents were peopled as a result of two long-continuing immigration movements, the first from Asian began probably 25000 years ago when Siberian tribes, in search of new hunting grounds or of refuge from pursuing enemies, crossed over the Bering Strait to Alaska. By 1492, over 10-20 million people, mistakenly called Indians by Christopher Columbus, inhabited the Americas. They developed their own aboriginal cultures, which ranged from the single to the complex, from those of the primitive tribes to the brilliant civilizations of the Aztecs, the Incas and Mayas. But their technological development lagged behind that of Europe and Asia.
The second migration to the American began with the expansion of Europe at the start of the modern period from 16th century. In 1492, Columbus persuaded the king and Queen of Spain to finance his voyage. He believed that by sailing west from Europe, he could reach the Far East. He never succeeded, but instead he landed on one of the Bahama islands in the Caribbean Sea and “discovered”the New World. Based on Columbus’ discovery, the Spanish king could claim the territory in the Americas and later Spain conquered the new land and established a huge empire and grabbed enormous wealth from the Indians. In 1497, another Italian sailor, John Cabot who was in the service of the English King, arrived in today’s Canada and the English King claimed that the whole of the territory of North American belonged to England. Enforcing this claim, the Englishman began to established permanent settlements in North American by the beginning of the 17th century.
Europe in the 16th and 17th Centuries
The English permanent settlements in North American began in the 17th century when Western Europe was undergoing great changes. During the Middle Ages(between A.D.1500), Europe was under the single spiritual authority of the Rome Catholic Church. The feudal system of serfdom prevailed. The peasants, or the serfs, were tied to the soil and worked in the fields for their lords. Merchants and craftsmen were handicapped by the social disorders. Art and learning were controlled by the Church. By the 16th century, some new and powerful social forces began to emerge which led to the awakening of Europe and the discovery of American. The first new force was the development of capitalism. The growth of capitalism produced two new classes-the bourgeois class and the working class. With the fast development of commerce and trade, the bourgeoisie became increasingly powerful in politics as well as in economy. They wanted to share power with feudal lords and in some countries such as England they wanted to have more power from the king so that they could have free development. The English Revolution was the result of this growth of capitalism.
The second major force that brought about the modern development of Europe was the Renaissance, which was marked by a changing outlook on life. The God-centered world was challenged by the great progress in natural and social science. People began to be more confident in themselves and show more interest in the world about them. Many challenged the authority of the Bible and were willing to observe, experiment and test truths for themselves. This attitude pushed the development of technology.
The third influential force was the Religious Reformation, a religious reform movement that started from Germany. In 1517, Martin Luther, a German professor of theology, put up “95 theses”on the church door in protest against abuse and corruption in the church. He argued that the Pope had no right to sell “indulgences”for the remission of sin. He believe that sinful men could win salvation neither by good works nor through the church or the Pope, but only by faith in Jesus Christ and through a direct relationship to God. And the only true guide to the will of God was the Bible. Because Martin Luther protested against the Catholic Church, the Reformation came to be called the Protestant Reformation. Soon after Martin Luther began his revolt, John Calvin, a Frenchman, who had fled to Switzerland, started his reform movement. Calvinism which had many followers in England will be dealt with later. In England, king Henry 8, because of the political disputes with the Rome Catholic Church and because of his personal marital problems, broke away from the Rome Catholic Church and set up the Church of England, and he became the head of the Church of England himself. These religious reform had much in common. They all challenge the authority of the Pope and the Catholic Church which controlled people’s religious beliefs and interfered in political affairs of the nation states. The individual Christian believers who supported the Reformation believed that human beings could be saved only by faith by establishing a direct contact with God, not through the church or his priests. These reforms reflected the rise of nationalism in Europe, represented the demand of the bourgeois class for free development and expressed the desire of ordinary working people, especially the serfs, for the liberation from the feudal control. Therefore, the Protestant Reformation was welcomed to by leaders, middle class and working people in Europe, especially in western Europe. As a result, the Protestants and their denominations spread far and wide.
Against the background of those emerging new forces, the 13 English colonies that would become the United states of America were planted in North America.
The Settlement in Virginia
The first English permanent settlement was founded in 1607 in Virginia. This was organized by the London Company with a charter from the English king James 1. The company sent three small ships with 144 English men to Virginia. During the long voyage across the Atlantic Ocean, 44 people died and 100 survivors landed by the side of a river, the James River, which they named after their king and began to build a town called Jamestown. Most of the 100 colonist were adventurous English gentlemen including some business people who refused to do any manual labor, and very few of them were willing laborers. Yet the London Company had wished to have a quick return for its investment and had instructed them to hunt for gold and other wealth as soon as they landed in Virginia. When the colonists settled down, they did not grow food. Instead, a few laborers among them start to dig for gold and look for other riches while those English gentlemen were idle, doing nothing. Unfortunately, nothing was found. Soon they ran into the shortage of food. When the second group of men were sent by the London Company with supplies, all but 38 of the first arrivals were dead. Jamestown was in a great crisis. Then Capital John Smith took the leadership. He impose discipline by making everyone work. A few years later, another colonist, John Rolf began to experiment with the West Indian Tobacco and his plant grew well in Virginia soil. Tobacco cultivation quickly spread up and down the settlement and yielded profits by selling tobacco to Europe. Meanwhile, John Rolf married the princess of an Indian tribe chief. This marriage led to the ending of hostility between the white people and Indian for some time. The plantation of tobacco saved the settlers and marriage gave time to the colonists for development.
In 1619,two events took place in Virginia, which would influence the shaping of America culture a great deal. On July 30, 1619, in the Jamestown church, the delegates elected from various communities in Virginia met as the House of Burgesses to discuss, along with the governor and his council members who were appointed, the enactment of laws for the colony. This was the first example for the future United States, the first meeting of an elected legislature, a representative assembly, in North American. It was thought to be the brilliant example of self-government of Americans although while servants did not have their representatives. A month later there occurred in Virginia another event. A Dutch ship brought in over 20 Negroes, who were bought to be held as servants for a term of years. Thus a start had been made toward the enslavement of Africans within what was to be the American republic. The two events combined constituted a unique American phenomenon. On the one hand, the English and other Europeans went to North America for seeking freedom. But on the other hand, these very white people who were seeking and fighting for their own freedom deprived black Africans of their freedom. George Washington was a chief author of the Declaration of Independence, and yet both of them were slave owners, each with over 200 black slaves.
Puritan New England
New England today includes Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Vermont, Maine and Rhode Island in the Northeast of the United States. The second enduring English settlement was established in Massachusetts Bay in 1962. It was founded by English puritans who separated themselves from the Church of England. As mentioned above, King Henry 8 cut off the political relationship with the Pope in Rome and set up the Church of England, but there was no reform in religious beliefs and practices. A group of people thought that the Church of England was too catholic and wanted to “purify”the church, hence the name“puritans”. These puritans were Protestants who followed the doctrine preached by John Calvin. They had some different religious beliefs from the Catholic Church. They believe that God was incomprehensible to man, and the power of God was all-knowing, yet hidden and unknown to man, while Catholics believed that God could be reached through his representative on the earth—the Pope. Puritan salvation was different from that of Catholics. Puritans were convinced that human beings were predestined by God before they were born. Some were God’s chosen people while others were predestined to be damned to hell. Therefore no good works could save anyone, and nobody knew if he or she was God’s elect. But Catholic argued that a person could confess his or her sin, do good works and give money to the church and buy back his or her soul. Was there any evidence for Puritans to show that some people were god’s chosen people? Puritans believed that everyone had a calling, which was given by God. The success of one’s work or the prosperity in his calling was the sign of being God’s elect. Therefore, everyone must work hard, spend little and invest for more business. Working hard and living a moral life were their ethics. How could Puritan find God’s will and establish a direct contact with God? They concluded that the Bible was the authority of their doctrine. So every Puritans must read the Bible in order to find God’s will and search for one’s individual contact with God. To be able to read the Bible and understand God’s will, education was essential for Puritans.
Such Puritan beliefs were heretical to the Church of England, so they were cruelly persecuted. Some of them were thrown into prison and even executed for their religious beliefs. Some of them fought back and started the English Revolution. Oliver Cromwell, one of the Puritans, became the revolutionary leader, overthrew the monarchy, had King Charles 1 beheaded and founded a republic. Some other Puritans thought that England was too corrupted and hopeless and decided to separate themselves from England. They fled to Holland where there was religious freedom. There they were allowed to meet and hold their services without interference. But as foreigners, they were not allowed to join the Dutch guilds of craftsmen, and so they had to work long and hard at unskilled and poorly paid jobs. They were further troubled as their children began to speak Dutch, marry into Dutch families, and lose their Englishness. Some of the Puritans decided to move again, this time across the Atlantic, where they might find an opportunity for a happier living and also worship as they pleased. The leaders of this group of Puritans found the necessary funds for the voyage from some merchants in London. In 1620, 35 Puritans and 67 non-Puritans took the ship Mayflower and left Holland for North America. Before they reached their destination, one of the Puritans Fathers drew up an agreement which was called the Mayflower Compact and was signed by 41 of the passengers. They formed their own religious community and set up a civil government for the general good of the colony they were going to found in the new land. They settled at Plymouth, Massachusetts. A much large Puritan colony was established in the Boston area in 1630 and by 1635 more Puritan settlers were migrating to nearby Connecticut.
Puritanism in New England changed gradually due to the frontier environment and the mobility of the population. As time went on, many of the new generations no longer adhered to the orthodox Puritanism. Many moved to the West and other parts of the United States. Today, Puritans are no longer in existence. But their legacies are still felt in American society and culture. For example, the Puritans hoped to build “a city upon hill”-an ideal community. Since that time, Americans have viewed their country as a great experiment, a worthy model for other nations. This sense of mission has been very strong in the minds of many Americans. New England also established another American tradition-a strain of often intolerant moralism. The Puritans believed the governments should enforce God’s morality. They strictly punished drunks, adulterers, violators of the Sabbath and other religious believers different from themselves. Roger Williams, one of the Puritans who protested that the state should not interfere with religion, was driven out of Massachusetts. In 1635, he set up Rhode Island colony, which guaranteed religious freedom and the separation of church and state. The Puritans also have left rich culture heritage to future Americans. The American values such as individualism, hard work, respect of education owe very much to the Puritan beliefs.
Catholic Maryland  
Following the two patterns of early American culture in Virginia and New England was the pattern in the colony of Maryland founded by the Catholics. The founder was the second Lord Baltimore. His father, George Calvert, was born into an ordinary English family, not from the nobility nor from a Catholic background. While at Oxford, he came to know some influential people, and upon his graduation, he became the secretary of state in king’s Privy Council. During his service to the throne, he was converted to Roman Catholicism. This conversion created some problems for his service to the English king. In England, the king was both the head of state and the head of the Church of England. Anyone who served the king must take the oath of supremacy recognizing the monarch as the supreme head of state and church. As a Catholic, Calvert could not take the oath because his religious supreme head was the Pope in Rome. So he was driven out of the count. But the English King Charles 1 personally excused him and made him a noble with the title of Baron Baltimore. As he had the experience of being suppressed for his Catholic beliefs and witnessed the persecution of his fellow catholic, he decided to find a haven in North America for his persecuted fellow religious believers. He went to his old friend King Charles 1 and asked for his help. In 1623, he was granted a charter from the King and was allowed to set up a colony in today’s Maryland. But before he could do so, he died. His son, the second Lord Baltimore, carried out his father’s will in 1623. He became the owner of the colony, captain-general of the armed forces, head of the church and disposer of all offices and the governor. In fact, he had the power comparable to that of the king in England. All he had to do was the promise of one-fifth of all the gold and silver discovered in Maryland and two Indian arrowheads a year to the king.
Lord Baltimore wished to introduce a feudal system similar to the manor system in Europe to his colony. His plan was that each gentleman who brought 5 servants with him settled in his land was allowed to establish a manor of 2000 acres. This gentleman had the privileges received in England, the privileges such as wearing distinctive metals to set the manor lord apart from the common herd. Lord Baltimore also declared that each freeholder was given 100 acres of land plus another 100 acres for his wife, 100 acres for a servant, and 50 acres for each of his children. But the freeholder could not enjoy the rights and privileges as the gentlemen. Both lord and freeholders must pay some rent to Lord Baltimore. Gentlemen’s lands were to be tilled by indentured servants.
This feudal plan was bound to be doomed as were other feudal plans experimented with in North American due to various factors in the New World. In order to develop his colony, Baltimore had to attract as many settles as possible as his land. So he encouraged the immigration of Protestants as well as Roman Catholics. Since relatively few of the Catholics were inclined to leave England, the Protestant settles soon far outnumbered the Catholics. In 1648, Lord Baltimore appointed a Protestant governor, and the next year, the Maryland Toleration Act, which assured freedom of worship to all who believed in Jesus Chris, was passed. Because the Protestant majority were capitalistic-minded people and refused to carry out the feudal plan, and because the wilderness of North American provided plenty of land while labor was scarce, it was impossible for Lord Baltimore to have his feudal plan executed. Not long after the founding of his colony, the feudal experimental plan was dropped, and the colony, like other colonies in North America, followed a capitalist development road.
Quaker Pennsylvania
The fourth colonial pattern in North America was set by William Penn, an English Quaker who had been looking for a place for his fellow believers to live according to their religious faith. The term “Quakers” was coined by their enemies because the Quakers were so faithful to God that when they spoke of God, they trembled. These Quakers, though they were Protestants, had very different religious beliefs not only from the Catholics, but also from puritans and other Protestant sects. They denied both the church and the Bible as the highest authority. They believed that people could communicate directly with God because everyone had an inner light and God was in everyone’s soul and in man’s heart. They believed in God through their faith without the help of church and priests. They did not build any church and did not train any priest. Their religious place of worship was called a meeting place, which could be anywhere. Since everyone had a divine light in his heart, all were born equal, and all were brothers and sisters. People were not bore sinful. Quakers had their own way of life too. They lived a simple life, with thrifty and self-denial. They believed that God required everyone to work hard and have a productive life. Even in jail, they busily set about working at crafts. They refuse all forms of war and followed a passive resistance. Their religious beliefs taught them that everyone was equal, so they refused to take off their caps to nobles when they met them and even refused to how to the king. They wore plain clothes and used plain language. They rejected the authority of church, they refused to pay taxes for the support of the church. As a result, they were persecuted, and many of them were put into prison. William Penn, the founder of Pennsylvania, was such a Quaker.
William Penn’s father was the admiral of England and a member of the Church of England. When Penn was at Oxford, he was converted and became a confirmed Quaker. For this, he was thrown into jail, and his father threatened to cut him off financially. All this could not prevent him from his religious determination. In 1681, after his father’s death, he used the debt of 16000 pounds King Charles 2 owed to his father as an excuse and asked the king to grant him a right to plant a colony in North America. He received the grant from the king and decided to found a colony for his persecuted fellow Quakers in today’s Pennsylvania, a name after his father. Before he went to Pennsylvania, he wrote a pamphlet called “Some Account of the Province of Pennsylvania”, which was translated into several European languages and circulated far and wide. In the pamphlet, he explained his plan. All those who settled in his land would enjoy religious freedom. This was a great attraction to thousands of people with different religious backgrounds who were being persecuted for their religion in Europe. Anther great appeal to Europeans, especially to those peasants hungry for land, was that he offered very easy terms for land. Anyone who would settle in his colony could get some land almost for nothing. Many Europeans were attracted to go to live in Pennsylvania, Germans, French people, Irish people, North Europeans as well as the English. When Penn arrived in his colony, he started to carry out what he called “the Holy Experiment”. From his religious belief that man was not born sinful and everyone was born equal, he encouraged the spirit of liberty and equality. He set no restrictions on immigration, and naturalization was made easier for non-English people. So many America historians believe that the idea of the melting-pot was first practiced here. William Penn also established a liberal self-government. In his colony, there was a representative assembly elected by the landowners, and death penalty was imposed only for the two crimes of treason and number, as compared with about 200 crimes leading to capital punishment in England at the time. The Quakers argued that religion was a person’s private business with God, therefore no government should interfere in his or her religious beliefs. In accordance with Quakerism, William Penn carried out the policy of separation of state and church in his colony. Penn’s holy experiment had great impact on American culture. Voltaire always held this colony up as proof that man could lead a good life without  absolute monarch, feudalism or religious and racial uniformity. Some American founding fathers such as Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin were inspired by Penn’s experiment.
The American Revolution
Those four patterns set by the early colonial leaders were filled with meaning for the future development of the United States. By the early 1760s, the 13 English colonies in North America had developed a similar American pattern in politics, economy and cultural life and enjoyed the same frontier environment. The English people and Europeans had become Americans and they were ready to separate themselves from the Old World. The American Revolution officially proclaimed the birth of a new nation of America.
On the eve of the American Revolution, while the 13 English colonies occupied the Atlantic coast, from New Hampshire in the north to Georgia in the south, the French controlled Canada and Louisiana. Between 1689 and 1815, French and Britain fought several wars, and North America was drawn into every one of them. In 1756, England and France began to fight the Seven Years’ War, known in America as the French and Indian War. The English government invest soldiers and money in North America and won a great empire. The Britain forces captured several Canadian strong points such as Quebec and Montreal. The peace of Paris, signed in 1763 between Britain and France, gave Britain title to Canada and all of North American east of the Mississippi River.
Britain’s victory led directly to a conflict with its America colonies. The Britain government argued that Britain had spent large sums of money to defend their American colonies in those wars, and that the colonists therefore should pay a part of those expenses. As a result, the British government began to charge new taxes on sugar, coffee, textiles and other imported goods. Foe instance, with the passage of the Stamp Act, special tax stamps had to be attached to all newspapers, pamphlets, legal documents and licenses. The Quartering Act passed by British Parliament forced the colonies to house and feed British soldiers. But the Americans feared that new taxes would make trading different, and that British troop stationed in the colonist had heretofore enjoyed. The colonial America insisted that they could be taxed only by their own colonial assemblies. “No taxation without representation”was their rallying cry. The colonists refused to obey the British laws, so British soldiers were to Boston.
In 1773, a group of patriots responded to the tax by staging the “Boston Tex Party”. Disguised as Indians, they boarded British merchant ships and tossed 342 crates of tea into Boston harbor. British Parliament then passed the Intolerable Acts: The independence of the Massachusetts colonial government was sharply curtailed, and more British soldiers were sent to the port of Boston, which was now closed to shipping. In September 1774, the First Continental Congress, a meeting of colonial leaders who opposed British oppression in the colonies, met in Philadelphia. These leaders urged Americans to disobey the Intolerable Acts and to boycott British trade. At the same time, the colonists began to organize militias and collect and store weapons and ammunition in order to defend themselves. On April 19, 1775, the first shot was fired when 700 British soldiers went to capture a colonial arms depot in a small town of Concord near Boston. Thus the American War of Independence began.
In may 1775, a second Continental Congress met in Philadelphia and began to assume the functions of a national government. It founded a Continental Army and Navy under the command of George Washington. On July 2, 1776, the Congress finally resolved that “these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be free and independent states.”Thomas Jefferson of Virginia, assisted by John Adams and Benjamin Franklin, drafted Declaration of in dependence, which the Congress adopted on July 4, 1776. The Declaration officially proclaimed the independence of 13 North American colonies. It solemnly declared:“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal; that they were endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable right; that among these, are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”Most importantly, it explained the philosophy of governments:“to secure these right, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed;”“Whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute a new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.”This theory of politics and a guiding principle of the American Revolution came from John Locke, an English political philosopher in the 17th century.
The War of Independence came to an end in 1781 with the victory of North American. The Treaty of Paris was signed in 1783 and Britain had to recognize the independence of the United States. A new American can nation was thus born.

[ 本帖最后由 flyflyspirit 于 2006-12-17 20:09 编辑 ]

九月爱上乒乓球UID: 151821

wow, it's a long essay.

It would more friendly if you change the font and skp one line between paragraphs.

九月爱上乒乓球UID: 151821

ft, I spent 5minutes admiring and envying you. Then I found out the author.....

flyflyspiritUID: 27889

haha, i am not the author,but i spent serverl days on typing it.
you also should give me a award!

ilovedatUID: 2230464

谢谢版主:loveliness: