Hist 211: US to 1865
Announcements
-collect exams -enjoy your break
Lecture 12: February 28, 2018
Video:
Source A. Nisha Bolsey and Moira Geary, “Why Did Police Assault Two Activists?” Socialistworker.org, February 26, 2018
https://socialistworker.org/2018/02/26/why-did-loyola-police-assault-two-activists
Source B. Phoenix article:
http://loyolaphoenix.com/2018/02/breaking-student-taken-custody-outside-mens- basketball-game/
Source C. Loyola’s official statement:
https://www.luc.edu/safety/2018/statementonincidentatlakeshorecampus/#d.en.496717
-watch video -assign students Source A, B, or C and have them answer the 4 questions below -when students finish reading sources, review A, B, and C via the 4 questions
- Summarize what happened in this incident, as recounted by your source.
- Does your source use specific evidence? What grade would you give the source for its use of evidence?
- Does your source have a particular point of view or opinion about the incident? Why or why not?
- Do you detect biases / agendas / self-interest in the account that you’ve read? Explain
-have students compare and contrast the Sources after the review
In your own view:
- Did the activists know why the police were detaining the two black men because they were suspected of scalping tickets?
- Why would the activists have been suspicious of police misconduct?
- Were the protestors over-reacting to what they witnessed the police doing to the two alleged ticket scalpers?
- Were the police justified in detaining the male activist? Did they use excessive force in doing so?
- Were the police justified in detaining the female activist? Did they use excessive force in doing so?
- Was this an example of racial injustice committed by law enforcement?
- Did you participate in the walkout yesterday? Why or why not?
Hist 211: US to 1865 Prof. Donoghue
Announcements
-thanks to Sebastian Wuepper for going above and beyond the call of duty during my absence
-tests returned to remaining students after class
-grievance procedure for grading
Lecture 15: March 20, 2018
Rise of the British Empire in the Atlantic World, ca. 1649-1750 / A Key Context to Understand Early American History
The British build their Atlantic empire through:
- legislation
- commerce (national/mercantalistic “free trade” centered around the slave trade)
- war and conquest (on land and sea)
- piracy
.
- War and Colonial Conquest
1649-1660………….Cromwellian conquest and colonization of Ireland
1655…………………England’s “Western Design” sends an navel/infantry expedition to the Spanish Caribbean that invade and conquers Jamaica, turning it from a Spanish to English colony
1655-1670…..……..Anglo-Spanish War
War effectively continues in the 1660s through piratical campaigns led by buccaneers, based in Jamaica and on Tortuga, many time under the command of Captain Henry Morgan …more below on this topic)
3 wars with the Dutch
1652-1654…………1st Anglo-Dutch War
1665-1667………….2nd Anglo-Dutch War (Dutch ally w/French vs English)
British capture New Amsterdam and take control of New Netherlands
1672-1674………….3rd Anglo-Dutch War
British gain advantage over Dutch on the high seas; the British Royal Navy becomes the most powerful naval force in the Atlantic
1689-1698………….War of the Grand Alliance/9 Years War v France (called King William’s War in the colonies)
France takes on all the major European empires and loses, although it will continue to challenge England for dominance over the Atlantic empires for over the next half century
1701-1713………… War of Spanish Succession (1701-1713); the ensuing Treaty of Utrecht (1713) forces the Spanish to give the British the asiento (which Britain had tried, for over a century to secure through privateering, buccaneering, and a series of long, imperial wars)
1739-1748………….War of Jenkins Ear: Britain v Spain, inspired by pressure from the South Sea Company (a joint stock slave trading company) to force Spain to continue providing Britain with the asiento to trade slaves in the Spanish Empire
1756-1763………….7 Years (or French and Indian War); one of the first truly global wars where Britain defeats France, competing its ascent to the imperial domination in the Atlantic world and beyond; the French lose Canada, Caribbean territories, and commercial trading rights in India
Which classes of British and colonial American society most benefitted from British imperial warfare?
Which classes benefitted least –or, suffered the most?
How can gender history help us break down the impact of imperial wars on working-class families?
How did the British Empire acquire the military labor (soldiers, sailors) to do the work of imperial warfare? (fighting, conquering, sailing/patrolling, building fortifications, bases, roads, and other forms of infrastructure)
British ‘press gangs’ forced sailors and poor men into the Royal Navy; conscription for the infantry worked much the same way
- and 3. Legislation and Commerce
1600……………….East India Company chartered by Crown and given monopoly of trade in Indian Ocean region (silk and cotton textiles, tea, spices)
1650………………..Parliament declares sovereignty over English colonies [“The Act of 1650”]
1651………………..Navigation Act [mercantalistic approach to empire building; exclude foreign rivals from conducting commerce with British colonies
“free trade”, the slave trade, and the reciprocal rise of merchant capitalism and European empires in the Atlantic
English vs Spanish commercial policy; the “asiento”
1663………………..Merchant Adventurers to Africa (later reconstituted as the Royal African Company in 1672) [a joint-stock company with a monopoly on the English slave trade; reincorpor monopoly ends in 1692]
Piracy and the Rise of the British Empire, ca. 1565-1726
Eras of Piracy in the British Atlantic
- Buccaneers and the Red Sea Pirates(1655-1681) B. Black Flag pirates (1713-1726)
piracy’s ambivalent relationship with privateering
privateering was an early modern innovation in European state sovereignty (i.e. legalization of government licensed piracy) that served simultaneous innovations in capitalist development such as the slave trade)
“buccaneers” (1650s-1690s) of Western (French) Hispaniola (St Domingue) and Tortuga
Buccaneers were run away indentured servants, slaves, AWOL soldier, sailors who jumped ship
Served the French, Dutch, English vs Spanish contemporary engraving of a buccaneer from John Exquemelin’s The Buccaneers of America (1684)
What the buccaneers steal from the Spanish (bullion, slaves, and trade goods) at Panama and on other buccaneering raids provides the start capital that makes Jamaica the richest colony in the British Empire
1664 –buccaneers and Gov. Thomas Modyford and Lt Col (aka “Captain”) Henry Morgan of Jamaica
1664-1668
Buccaneer raids on: – Providence Island (off the coast of modern Nicaragua) -Granada (city in modern Nicaragua) -Porto Bello (city in modern anama) -Coro, Rio de la Hatcha, Maraicabo, Merida, Gibraltar (all in modern Venezuela) -Puerto Principe, Isle la Vache (both in Cuba)
1670……the Treaty of Madrid establishes peace between the British and Spanish in Euro; the British are divided over whether the Treaty of Madrid also established “peace beyond the line”
1671…………led by Capt. Henry Morgan, the buccaneers sack and destroy Panama, the largest city in Spanish America;
1670-1681…………the Treaty of Madrid, the reincorporation of the Royal African Company, “free trade” in slaves (asiento), Jamaica’s capitalist take off as a profitable sugar/slave colony and a slave trading emporium…all of these developments reduce the usefulness of the buccaneers to Jamaican colonial elites and the British imperial government
1681………..Jamaican Assembly passes anti-piracy act giving itself the power to execute pirates, a power formerly claimed exclusively by the British Admiralty Court; every other British colony passes some variation of the act over the next decade
1680s-1690s……..pirates move some of their operations to the Indian Ocean region
-they make the island of Madagascar their new base -they engage in slave-trading and also pillage the shipping of the Moghul Emperor of India the booty includes gold and silver bullion, spices, and cotton and calico textiles
Captain Kidd, a famous Red Sea pirate and the colonial elite of New York City engaging in trade in New York harbor
-the Red Sea pirates sell or trade their booty from the Indian Ocean Region in American colonies
–colonists love it b/c pirates bring more goods at cheaper prices than the East Indian Company has provided
-the pirates’ stolen bullion also increases the volume and value of trade -the colonial economies of the Carolinas, the mid-Atlantic region [Pennsylvania and New York], and New England [Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island] all benefit tremendously from trade with the Red Sea pirates
1692-1700……… commerce in the empire grows as free trade begins to encroach on the market share of crown monopolies
1692……..RAC loses its absolute monopoly on the British slave trade 1696……..EIC loses its absolute monopoly on the Indian Ocean trade Act for the Effectual
1700…………..Suppression of Piracy Act
Free trade reduces the need for piratical commerce; colonists begin to turn away from pirates and the imperial state begins enforcing strict laws vs piracy Parliament strengthens colonial admiralty courts powers to suppress piracy and the colonial merchants and planters who financed piratical voyages in the Caribbean, Red Sea, and Indian Ocean
QUESTION:
Without piracy, the British Empire would never have flourished, for piracy secured the bullion (gold/silver) for currency and the slave labor/slave trading profits that served as the start-up capital for the plantation complex ( plantations themselves and the commercial and financial networks that made slaves and the products of slave labor profitable, global commodities)
SO…why did the British choose to suppress piracy, which had made its Atlantic empire possible?
Hist 211: US to 1865 Prof. Donoghue
Announcements
-exam postponed -the review guide will be posted on Thursday March 29 -the exam will posted on Tuesday April 3 -it’s due [hard copy] in class on Thursday April 5
Lecture 16: March 22, 2018
Rise of the British Empire in the Atlantic World, ca. 1649-1750 / A Key Context to Understand Early American History
The British build their Atlantic empire through:
- legislation
- commerce (national/mercantalistic “free trade” centered around the slave trade)
- war and conquest (on land and sea)
- piracy
- and 3. Legislation and Commerce
1600……………….East India Company chartered by Crown and given monopoly of trade in Indian Ocean region (silk and cotton textiles, tea, spices)
1650………………..Parliament declares sovereignty over English colonies [“The Act of 1650”]
1651………………..Navigation Act [mercantalistic approach to empire building; exclude foreign rivals from conducting commerce with British colonies
“free trade”, the slave trade, and the reciprocal rise of merchant capitalism and European empires in the Atlantic
English vs Spanish commercial policy; the “asiento”
Opposing factions of British imperial policy makers had two conflicting notions of free trade in the seventeenth century
- corporate monopolies chartered by the Crown such as the East India Company and the Royal African Company would have
complete access to foreign markets; English merchants who were not members of these monopolies would be excluded from these trading rights 2. All English merchants would be allowed to trade in all foreign markets
1663………………..Merchant Adventurers to Africa (later reconstituted as the Royal African Company in 1672) [a joint-stock company with a monopoly on the English slave trade; reincorpor monopoly ends in 1692]
Piracy and the Rise of the British Empire, ca. 1565-1726
Eras of Piracy in the British Atlantic
- Buccaneers and the Red Sea Pirates(1655-1681) B. Black Flag pirates (1713-1726)
piracy’s ambivalent relationship with privateering
privateering was an early modern innovation in European state sovereignty (i.e. legalization of government licensed piracy) that served simultaneous innovations in capitalist development such as the slave trade)
“buccaneers” (1650s-1690s) of Western (French) Hispaniola (St Domingue) and Tortuga
Buccaneers were run away indentured servants, slaves, AWOL soldier, sailors who jumped ship
Served the French, Dutch, English vs Spanish contemporary engraving of a buccaneer from John Exquemelin’s The Buccaneers of America (1684)
During the 1660s, the British Empire wanted to use the buccaneers as military labor to ‘force upon a free trade in slaves’ in Spanish colonies
The buccaneers negotiate with the British in Jamaica to get the best terms for their piratical services
What the buccaneers steal from the Spanish (bullion, slaves, and trade goods) at Panama and on other buccaneering raids provides the start capital that makes Jamaica the richest colony in the British Empire
1664 –buccaneers and Gov. Thomas Modyford and Lt Col (aka “Captain”) Henry Morgan of Jamaica
1664-1668
Buccaneer raids on: – Providence Island (off the coast of modern Nicaragua) -Granada (city in modern Nicaragua) -Porto Bello (city in modern anama) -Coro, Rio de la Hatcha, Maraicabo, Merida, Gibraltar (all in modern Venezuela) -Puerto Principe, Isle la Vache (both in Cuba)
1670……the Treaty of Madrid establishes peace between the British and Spanish in Euro; the British are divided over whether the Treaty of Madrid also established “peace beyond the line”
1671…………led by Capt. Henry Morgan, the buccaneers sack and destroy Panama, the largest city in Spanish America;
1670-1681…………the Treaty of Madrid, the reincorporation of the Royal African Company, “free trade” in slaves (asiento), Jamaica’s capitalist take off as a profitable sugar/slave colony and a slave trading emporium…all of these developments reduce the usefulness of the buccaneers to Jamaican colonial elites and the British imperial government
1681………..Jamaican Assembly passes anti-piracy act giving itself the power to execute pirates, a power formerly claimed exclusively by the British Admiralty Court; every other British colony passes some variation of the act over the next decade
1680s-1690s……..pirates move some of their operations to the Indian Ocean region
-they make the island of Madagascar their new base -they engage in slave-trading and also pillage the shipping of the Moghul Emperor of India the booty includes gold and silver bullion, spices, and cotton and calico textiles
Captain Kidd, a famous Red Sea pirate and the colonial elite of New York City engaging in trade in New York harbor
–the Red Sea pirates sell or trade their booty from the Indian Ocean Region in American colonies
–colonists love it b/c pirates bring more goods at cheaper prices than the East Indian Company has provided
-the pirates’ stolen bullion also increases the volume and value of trade -the colonial economies of the Carolinas, the mid-Atlantic region [Pennsylvania and New York], and New England [Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island] all benefit tremendously from trade with the Red Sea pirates
1692-1700……… commerce in the empire grows as piratical free trade begins to encroach on the market share of crown monopolies
1692……..RAC loses its absolute monopoly on the British slave trade 1696……..EIC loses its absolute monopoly on the Indian Ocean trade Act for the Effectual
1700…………..Suppression of Piracy Act
Free trade reduces the need for piratical commerce; colonists begin to turn away from pirates and the imperial state begins enforcing strict laws vs piracy Parliament strengthens colonial admiralty courts powers to suppress piracy and the colonial merchants and planters who financed piratical voyages in the Caribbean, Red Sea, and Indian Ocean
QUESTION:
Without piracy, the British Empire would never have flourished, for piracy secured the bullion (gold/silver) for currency and the slave labor/slave trading profits that served as the start-up capital for the plantation complex ( plantations themselves and the commercial and financial networks that made slaves and the products of slave labor profitable, global commodities)
SO…why did the British choose to suppress piracy, which had made its Atlantic empire possible?
The Hidden Histories of Empire-Building and the Rise of Global Capitalism
The very workers (servants, slaves, soldiers, sailors) by force (naval impressment, military conscription, colonial transportation, kidnapping, slave trade) mobilized by merchants, planters, and the imperial state often organized to resist their exploitation
-Bacon’s Rebellion (1676) -Black Flag Piracy (1715-1726) -anti-impressment riots [Knowles Riots, 1741-1747, Britain, N. America, W. Indies] -slave / servant revolts (Barbados, 1649, 1655, 1692 -slave revolts (Jamaica, 1655-1739; 1760 -slave revolt Stono, SC, 1739 -formation of maroon communities through slave rebellions and escapes “maronnage”) Jamaica, the Dismal Swamp (VA/NC), Georgia Low Country, Mississippi Delta
Imperial and colonial officials, merchants, and planters (i.e. the imperial ‘elite’) likened these unruly workers referred to them as ‘motley crews’ and likened their insurgencies to the classical monster ‘the many-headed hydra’
Who destroyed the hydra in classical mythology?
Case study of ‘the hydra’: New York City Revolt of 1741
Ft George, NYC (biggest British military installation in N. America)
African Americans (free and enslaved) combine with mostly Irish working class people (indentured servants, dock workers, soldiers, sailors) in an uprising to the overthrow the political and economic elite of New York City
Rebel leaders: John Gwin, Negro Peg (Margaret Kerry), John Hughson
On St. Patrick’s Day, 1741, the rebels set fire to Ft George and the wealthier parts of New York City
In following weeks, dozens of suspects were rounded up and tortured. Eventually, 17 enslaved African men, 2 white men and, 2 white women were executed as rebels
Explain why this phrase made sense to the slave named Tom, a conspirator in the rebellion forced to testify about his involvement:
“The white men wanted me to join to help kill the white people.”
Hist 211: US to 1865 Prof. Donoghue
Announcements
-If you need the key to decode my comments on your exam, please let me know and I’ll send ASAP after class
Lecture 17: March 27, 2018
QUESTION:
Without piracy, the British Empire would never have flourished, for piracy secured the bullion (gold/silver) for currency and the slave labor/slave trading profits that served as the start-up capital for the plantation complex ( plantations themselves and the commercial and financial networks that made slaves and the products of slave labor profitable, global commodities)
SO…why did the British choose to suppress piracy, which had made its Atlantic empire possible?
The Hidden Histories of Empire-Building and the Rise of Global Capitalism
In the 17th and 18th Centuries, merchants, planters, colonial governments and the imperial state force used force and fraud (naval impressment, military conscription, colonial transportation, kidnapping, slave trade) to mobilize hundreds of thousands of Europeans, Africans, and Native Americans to provide the military and plantation labor to build the British Empire and advance the rise of global capitalism. By acquiring this labor, the Empire believed it could promote:
-the spread of civilization -political liberty -economic opportunity -wealth to enrich the people and empower the strength of the state vs its imperial rivals -the apocalyptic redemption of the world through Protestantism
It’s important to remember, however that those who had been made to work against their will resisted the theft of their bodies, their liberty, their labor power, and their separation from community and loved ones. Such resistance not only displays the resilience and creativity of working people from Africa, Europe, and the Americas, it also shows that they forged a radical political tradition of liberty vs the ‘slavery’ of tyranny, in all its forms, was forged “from below.”
In sum, class conflict between unfree workers and those who threatened their liberty took on many forms in the Atlantic world. Here are some important examples:
-Bacon’s Rebellion (1676) -Black Flag Piracy (1715-1726) -anti-impressment riots [Knowles Riots, 1741-1747, Britain, N. America, W. Indies] -slave / servant revolts (Barbados, 1649, 1655, 1692 -slave revolts (Jamaica, 1655-1739; 1760 -slave revolt Stono, SC, 1739 -formation of maroon communities through slave rebellions and escapes “maronnage”) Jamaica, the Dismal Swamp (VA/NC), Georgia Low Country, Mississippi Delta
Maroons in the Great Dismal Swamp, late 18th C
Imperial and colonial officials, merchants, and planters (i.e. the imperial ‘elite’) likened these unruly workers referred to them as ‘motley crews’ and likened their insurgencies to the classical monster ‘the many-headed hydra’
Who destroyed the hydra in classical mythology?
Case study of ‘the hydra’: New York City Revolt of 1741
St Patrick –what was he remembered for by the Irish of the 18th Century?
Ft George, NYC (biggest British military installation in N. America)
African Americans (free and enslaved) combine with mostly Irish working class people (indentured servants, dock workers, soldiers, sailors) in an uprising to the overthrow the political and economic elite of New York City
Rebel leaders: John Gwin, Negro Peg (Margaret Kerry), John Hughson
On St. Patrick’s Day, 1741, the rebels set fire to Ft George and the wealthier parts of New York City
In following weeks, dozens of suspects were rounded up and tortured. Eventually, 17 enslaved African men, 2 white men and, 2 white women were executed as rebels
Explain why this phrase made sense to the slave named Tom, a conspirator in the rebellion forced to testify about his involvement:
“The white men wanted me to join to help kill the white people.”
Hist 211: US to 1865 Prof. Donoghue
Announcements:
-test review posted next Tuesday; test posted next Thursday; test due the following Tuesday (email to me in an attachment)
Lecture 18: March 29, 2018
It’s important to remember that those who had been made to work against their will throughout the imperial military and the Atlantic plantation complex resisted the theft of their bodies, their liberty, their labor power, and their separation from community and loved ones. Such resistance not only displays the resilience and creativity of working people from Africa, Europe, and the Americas, it also shows that they forged a radical political tradition of liberty vs the ‘slavery’ of tyranny, in all its forms, was forged “from below.”
In sum, class conflict between unfree workers and those who threatened their liberty took on many forms in the Atlantic world. Here are some important examples:
-Bacon’s Rebellion (1676) -Black Flag Piracy (1715-1726) -anti-impressment riots [Knowles Riots, 1741-1747, Britain, N. America, W. Indies] -slave / servant revolts (Barbados, 1649, 1655, 1692 -slave revolts (Jamaica, 1655-1739; 1760 -slave revolt Stono, SC, 1739 -maroon communities form through slave rebellions and escapes “maronnage”) -Jamaica – the Dismal Swamp (VA/NC) -Georgia Low Country and Spanish Florida -Mississippi Delta
Maroons in the Great Dismal Swamp, late 18th C
Imperial and colonial officials, merchants, and planters (i.e. the imperial ‘elite’) called groups of unruly working-class people in the Atlantic world ‘motley crews’ and likened their insurgencies to the classical monster ‘the many-headed hydra’
Who destroyed the hydra in classical mythology? Hercules
planters, merchants, and imperial and colonial officials called empire-building (warfare and conquest0, colonization, economic development, and suppressing working-class resistance “the labors of Hercules”
Black Flag pirates (ca. 1715-1726] attack Royal African Company shipping on the West African coast, causing massive losses in the transatlantic slave trade
26 pirates hanged at Newport, RI [1723] Calico Jack Rackham’s Jolly Roger
The Stono Rebellion, west of Charleston, South Carolina [1739]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6zvcS2tlKS4
The American Revolution (or, The Disintegration of the First British Empire)
Causes of the American Revolution
Most historians locate the origins or causes of the American Revolution in the Imperial Crisis (1762-1775).
Britain’s victory over the French in the 7 Year’s War (1756-63) drove the latter out of Canada and gave the former complete control of North America. Fort Necessity, where the battle that caused the war occurred (July 1754), and where George Washington, as a Captain of Virginia militia men fighting for the British Empire, gained his first combat experience. He lost the battle (!)
With its victory in the 7 Years War (1756-1763) Britain had become the world’s mightiest empire with this triumph, but the war had bankrupted the government.
To increase revenue into the treasury, the Empire abandoned its long-standing policy of “salutary neglect”, and Parliament began imposing taxes on colonists and strictly enforcing the Navigation Acts.
Key British policies that provoked the “Imperial Crisis”:
-The Proclamation Act (1762-63) The Revenue Act (1763) -the Sugar Act (1764) [Writs of Assistance; Admiralty Courts] -the Stamp Act and the Quartering Act (1765) -Townshend Acts (1767) -Quartering Act (1768) -Tea Act (1773)
Hist 211: US to 1865 Prof. Donoghue
Announcements
-review guide for exam posted tonight on Sakai -exam posted on Thursday evening; due in an email attachment before class next Tuesday
-read the NPR article on the Sinclair newsgroup (see link below in the lecture notes) -find 2 more articles on the controversy, 1 from ‘the mainstream media’ and one from a news source that’s critical of the mainstream media -write a paragraph (due in class on Thursday, hard copy) laying out your position on the following question: Is the Sinclair group upholding the integrity of the free press in our Republic through its anti-fake news editorial? If so, explain how; if not,what is it doing?
Lecture 19: April 3, 2018
The American Revolution, the Constitution, and free speech
“fake news, ”The ‘free press’ and a free republic
Hist 211 and ‘citizenship literacy’
https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/04/02/598794433/video-reveals-power- of-sinclair-as-local-news-anchors-recite-script-in-unison
Hercules v The Many-Headed Hydra / American freedom struggles before the American Revolution
The Stono Rebellion, west of Charleston, South Carolina [1739]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6zvcS2tlKS4
The American Revolution (or, The Disintegration of the First British Empire)
Causes of the American Revolution
Most historians locate the origins or causes of the American Revolution in the Imperial Crisis (1762-1775).
Britain’s victory over the French in the 7 Year’s War (1756-63) drove the latter out of Canada and gave the former complete control of North America. Fort Necessity, where the battle that caused the war occurred (July 1754), and where George Washington, as a Captain of Virginia militia men fighting for the British Empire, gained his first combat experience. He lost the battle (!)
With its victory in the 7 Years War (1756-1763) Britain had become the world’s mightiest empire with this triumph, but the war had bankrupted the government.
To increase revenue into the treasury, the Empire abandoned its long-standing policy of “salutary neglect”, and Parliament began imposing taxes on colonists and strictly enforcing the Navigation Acts.
Key British policies that provoked the “Imperial Crisis”:
-The Proclamation Act (1762-63) The Revenue Act (1763) -the Sugar Act (1764) [Writs of Assistance; Admiralty Courts] -the Stamp Act and the Quartering Act (1765) -Townshend Acts (1767) -Quartering Act (1768) -Tea Act (1773)
Hist 211: US to 1865 Prof. Donoghue
Announcements
-exam posted tonight; due in an email attachment before class next Tuesday
Lecture 20: April 5, 2018
Sinclair Broadcast Group discussion
The assignment was to read the NPR article on the Sinclair newsgroup (see link below in the lecture notes) and then: -find 2 more articles on the controversy, 1 from ‘the mainstream media’ and one from a news source that’s critical of the mainstream media -write a paragraph (due in class on Thursday, hard copy) laying out your position on the following question:
Is the Sinclair group upholding the integrity of the free press in our Republic through its anti-fake news editorial? If so, explain how; if not,what is it doing?
For video and map of Sinclair holdings: https://www.vox.com/2018/4/4/17190240/sinclair-local-tv-map-data
Sinclair owns 170 TV stations around the nation, trying to puruchas Tribune Media*
Tribune Media is comprised of 42 owned or operated broadcast stations, national entertainment network WGN America, Tribune Studios, WGN-Radio and a significant number of real estate properties and strategic investments.
“The print media is so left wing as to be meaningless dribble” -David Smith, Executive Chairman, Sinclair Broadcast Group
The American Revolution (or, The Disintegration of the First British Empire)
Causes of the American Revolution
Most historians locate the origins or causes of the American Revolution in the Imperial Crisis (1762-1775).
Britain’s victory over the French in the 7 Year’s War (1756-63) drove the latter out of Canada and gave the former complete control of North America. Fort Necessity, where the battle that caused the war occurred (July 1754), and where George Washington, as a Captain of Virginia militia men fighting for the British Empire, gained his first combat experience. He lost the battle (!)
With its victory in the 7 Years War (1756-1763) Britain had become the world’s mightiest empire with this triumph, but the war had bankrupted the government.
To increase revenue into the treasury, the Empire abandoned its long-standing policy of “salutary neglect”, and Parliament began imposing taxes on colonists and strictly enforcing the Navigation Acts.
Key British policies that provoked the “Imperial Crisis”:
-The Proclamation Act (1762-63) The Revenue Act (1763) -the Sugar Act (1764) [Writs of Assistance; Admiralty Courts] -the Stamp Act and the Quartering Act (1765) -Townshend Acts (1767) -Quartering Act (1768) -Tea Act (1773)
British troops disembarking on Long Wharf in Boston (1768) to occupy the city. The assertion of greater British imperial power over colonial governments, colonial liberties, and economic life sparked an “Imperial Crisis”, or a backlash organized by angry colonists who called themselves ‘Patriots’
The Patriot movement during the Imperial Crisis did not begin as a struggle to break away from Britain to form an American Republic; American patriots during the crisis claimed a love for tradition British liberties and natural rights that they believed had been violated by the post-7 Year War policies initiated by King and Parliament
Patriots resisting what they called the “slavery” of political tyranny, tried to reclaim their rights and liberties as “freeborn Englishmen” and the King’s loyal subjects in America.
“Freeborn English” political heritage prides itself in: -Magna Charta -English Revolution (ca. 1642-1660) -Glorious Revolution (1688-1690) -Parliamentary supremacy -English Bill of Rights A frequently summoned Parliament and free elections Members should have freedom of speech in Parliament No armies should be raised in peacetime No taxes could be levied, without the authority of parliament Laws should not be dispensed with, or suspended, without the consent of parliament
No excessive fines should imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted
Freeborn English political traditions complement Patriot movement embrace of Enlightenment philosophies of political liberty advanced by John Locke
Key Patriot movement organizations: The Sons of Liberty, formed in 1765, chapters in each of the colonies, organizes resistance (boycotts, demonstrations, publications/propaganda
John Hancock George Robert Twelves Hewes
Two Sons of Liberty –what did they have in common and what conflicting interests did they have?
The Sons of Neptune -sailors who organized liberty mobs
The Sons of Africa -slaves and free blacks who advocated through publications, petitions, and action in liberty mobs for the Patriot movement to link its fight for freedom to the abolition of slavery)
Committees of Correspondence (1768) –delegated by Sons of Liberty groups in each colony to keep one another updated on British actions and Patriot activities
The Sons of Liberty used terror as a tactic to resist British policy and to mobilize popular support for this resistance
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFWZ925zK0A&feature=share
