NormanWA2 1

Melvin Norman

Dr. Eisel

HIST-2010

June 27, 2025

Revolutionary Dreams and Lived Realities Clash

The collision between European visions of the Americas and the harsh realities of colonial life revealed a profound disconnect between expectation and outcome, characterized by unattainable fantasies of wealth and dominance met with environmental hardship, resilient Indigenous nations, and the inherent contradictions of establishing societies founded on both liberty and oppression. This dissonance, evident in propagandistic cartography, fraught Indigenous relations, and deeply contingent concepts of freedom during the initial colonial period, did not vanish with the advent of the American Revolution. Instead, the revolutionary era amplified these contradictions, particularly for enslaved African Americans and women, who seized upon the rhetoric of liberty only to find their expectations of freedom and equality shattered against the entrenched realities of a society unwilling to fully embrace its own proclaimed ideals.  The Revolution’s promise of universal liberty ignited transformative expectations, yet the lived realities of enslaved people and women exposed its limitations, revealing a persistent disconnect that defined the new nation’s struggle for identity.

Enslaved African Americans astutely recognized the revolutionary rhetoric of natural rights and liberty as a powerful tool to challenge their bondage, directly confronting the hypocrisy of a slaveholding nation fighting for its own freedom. They framed their petitions using the very language employed by white revolutionaries against Britain, as seen in the 1777 “Petition for Freedom” presented to the Massachusetts legislature by “A Great Number of Blackes.” The petitioners grounded their claim in “a Natural and Unalienable Right to that freedom which the Grat Parent of the Universe… Bestowed equally on all menkind,” explicitly paralleling the Declaration of Independence (Petition for Freedom 1777). They argued that their enslavement violated “the Laws of Nature and of Nations” and was utterly incompatible with living among “a People Professing the mild Religion of Jesus,” highlighting the moral and ideological contradictions at the heart of the revolutionary cause. Their expectation, fueled by revolutionary ideals, was that the logic of the rebellion demanded their emancipation, yet their lived experience remained one of continued bondage, their petitions largely ignored by the legislatures they implored.

The radical potential of revolutionary ideals reached its zenith in planned rebellions like Gabriel’s Conspiracy (1800), where enslaved individuals transformed the abstract language of liberty into a concrete plan for armed insurrection, expecting to claim the freedom denied them. The captured rebel’s defiant statement, as recounted by Robert Sutcliff, powerfully illustrates this appropriation of revolutionary ethos. Facing execution, the rebel declared his actions were no different in principle from those of George Washington, stating, “I have adventured my life in endeavouring to obtain the liberty of my countrymen, and am a willing sacrifice in their cause,” and directly comparing his trial to what Washington “would have had to offer, had he been taken by the British” (Sutcliff). This profound statement reveals an expectation that the revolutionary principles of fighting for liberty against an oppressive power legitimized their own struggle. However, the brutal suppression of the conspiracy and the execution of its leaders underscored the harsh reality: the revolutionary promise of liberty was not intended for them, and asserting their right to it brought swift and deadly retribution, not emancipation.

Women who actively participated in the Revolutionary War effort, like Sarah Osborn, experienced an expansion of their traditional roles and a glimpse of agency, fostering expectations of greater recognition or rights, only to find those expectations largely unfulfilled in the postwar society. Osborn’s pension deposition details her remarkable service: traveling with the Continental Army, working as a cook and washerwoman directly behind the lines at the siege of Yorktown, and even carrying provisions into the trenches under fire, famously telling General Washington she was unafraid of cannonballs (Osborn). Her direct contribution to the military effort, alongside other women like “Sergeant Lamberson’s and Lieutenant Forman’s wives and a colored woman by the name of Letta,” placed her in the heart of the revolutionary struggle, creating a lived experience of usefulness and shared sacrifice. Yet, the very fact that she had to apply for a pension decades later highlights the postwar reality; her service, while vital, did not translate into broader social, political, or economic rights for women in the new republic. The expectation of greater status generated by participation crashed against the persistent structures of patriarchy.

Contrastingly, the experience of Lucy Knox, wife of General Henry Knox, reveals the expectations and constraints faced by elite women, whose contributions, while significant, remained confined to the domestic and social sphere, reinforcing traditional gender hierarchies despite the revolutionary upheaval. In her 1777 letter to her absent husband, Lucy Knox expressed her anxieties about managing the household and property in his absence, a significant responsibility thrust upon her by the war. She also articulated strong political opinions, lamenting the “vile Torys” and wishing they were “exiled from the earth” (Knox 23 Aug. 1777). Her letter demonstrates an expectation of partnership and shared commitment to the revolutionary cause, alongside a keen awareness of the political stakes. However, her lived experience, while involving substantial managerial duties, remained firmly within the accepted feminine realm of household management and emotional support. Unlike Osborn’s direct war service, Lucy Knox’s contribution, though vital to her husband’s ability to serve, did not challenge the fundamental expectation that women’s primary sphere was domestic, a reality unchanged by the Revolution’s egalitarian rhetoric.

The gap between revolutionary ideals of liberty and the harsh realities of continued enslavement, racial oppression, and gender constraints fundamentally defined the early republic. While enslaved petitioners, rebels like Gabriel, and women such as Sarah Osborn demonstrated the transformative potential of revolutionary rhetoric and fostered expectations of justice, the brutal suppression of revolt, denial of Black rights, and confinement of women revealed the revolution’s limits. This dissonance was not new but inherited and magnified from the colonial era’s disconnect between vision and reality. The struggle to reconcile the promise of liberty with the experience of oppression became, and remains, a central, unresolved tension in the American story.

Works Cited

Knox, Lucy Flucker. Letter to Henry Knox. 23 Aug. 1777.  Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History,  www.gilderlehrman.org/collection/glc024370104. Accessed 24 June 2025.

Osborn, Sarah. “Deposition for Revolutionary War Pension.” 1837.  SHEC: Resources for Teachers, American Social History Project, shec.ashp.cuny.edu/items/show/862. Accessed 24 June 2025.

“Petition for Freedom to the Massachusetts Council and House of Representatives.” 13 Jan. 1777.  Massachusetts Archives, Courtesy of Massachusetts Archives.  Africans in America,  www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part2/2h42.html. Accessed 24 June 2025.

Sutcliff, Robert.  Travels in some parts of North America in the years 1804, 1805, & 1806. B. & T. Kite, 1812. Excerpt: “Rebel’s Statement from Gabriel’s Conspiracy.”  Africans in America,  www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part3/3h507.html. Accessed 24 June 2025.

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Norman 1

Melvin Norman

Dr. Eisel

HIST-2010

June 06, 2025

Visions Shattered in New World

European visions of the Americas, fueled by tales of boundless wealth and empty lands ripe for conquest, collided violently with the harsh exigencies of colonial life, showing that reality was very different from what they expected. Europeans in early America experienced things much different from what they had imagined, as revealed through propagandistic cartography, their interactions with Indigenous people and their ideas about freedom, clearly showing that Europeans found the New World to be difficult, unpredictable and often not what they had hoped for.

Gerardus Mercator’s 1587 world map, derived from his seminal projection, functioned as a powerful instrument shaping European perceptions, deliberately portraying the New World as knowable, conquerable, and abundant (Mercator). The map’s projection significantly exaggerated landmasses in higher latitudes, subtly inflating the perceived size and importance of territories like North America. The coastlines are shown in detail, even if not based on fact, but the inside of the continents is mostly empty or filled with imaginary creatures and pictures (Mercator). With this map, the idea is clear; huge, mysterious lands were out there and they were mostly empty and full of resources for Europeans to use. It led explorers to expect that riches and open lands would be easily found, without facing any major opposition and those expectations were met with harsh reality upon arrival.

The divergent relationships forged by Europeans with Indigenous populations starkly illustrate the collapse of anticipated dominance. Samuel de Champlain’s account of the 1609 battle near Lake Champlain reveals a relationship in New France built on pragmatic military alliance and interdependence. His description of using European firearms together with Huron and Algonquin allies which made the Iroquois think “two men could not be killed so fast” (de Champlain ch. 2), suggests that the French relied on Indigenous allies, warriors and local political ties to achieve their survival and fur trade goals. In Virginia, the English relied on force which was very different from the way the Dutch cooperated in New Amsterdam. John Smith’s story tells of the “Starving Time” (1609-1610), when the Powhatan Confederacy and the English colony had a relationship filled with fear, suspicion and anger. Because the colonists relied on “dogs, Catts, Ratts and myce” to eat and didn’t farm, they found themselves depending on the Powhatan for trade, even though they were afraid of them (Smith bk. 4, ch. 5). French goals that became strategic partnerships based on common goals, but English attempts to be self-sufficient and rule led to being dependent on others and fighting wars.

The concept of “freedom” in early America proved deeply fractured and contingent. Colonists like the Puritans sought religious liberty yet established rigidly hierarchical societies. John Winthrop’s 1634 letter prioritized collective conformity over individual liberty (Winthrop), reserving freedom primarily for male church members. The Massachusetts Body of Liberties (1641) codified this exclusivity, granting protections to freemen (Sections 1-8) while explicitly sanctioning slavery and mandating death for heresy, witchcraft, and dissent (Sections 85-88, 89-91) (Massachusetts General Court). Essentially, the freedom of some white male colonists relied on the subjugation of Africans, Indigenous people, women, dissenters, and servants, demonstrating liberty’s dependence on dominance.

These Primary sources depict profound disillusionment. Promises of effortless dominion, like Mercator’s map, shattered against resilient Indigenous nations and harsh environments. Champlain’s alliances and Smith’s desperation reveal eroded superiority, forcing reliance or conflict. Laws intended for order and freedom simultaneously permitted slavery and suppression, exposing colonial liberty’s contradictions. The reality diverged sharply from visions of victory and universal freedom, becoming instead a harsh saga of adaptation, deep inequality, and continuous, often violent, struggles for power in a landscape defying European fantasies.

Works Cited

de Champlain, Samuel.  The Voyages of Sieur de Champlain of Saintonge… c. 1608.  American Journeys Collection, Wisconsin Historical Society, content.wisconsinhistory.org/digital/collection/aj/id/6335/rec/1. Accessed 6 June 2025. (Cited as Book XIII, Chapter II per source metadata).

Massachusetts General Court.  The Massachusetts Body of Liberties. 1641. Massachusetts Historical Society,  www.masshist.org/database/viewer.php?item_id=96&pid=15. Accessed 6 June 2025.

Mercator, Gerardus.  [Orbis Terrae Compendiosa Descriptio]. Map. 1587.  David Rumsey Map Collection,  www.davidrumsey.com/luna/servlet/detail/RUMSEY~8~1~28190~900059:Orbis-Terrae-Compendiosa-Descriptio-?sort=Pub_List_No_InitialSort%2CPub_Date%2CPub_List_No%2CSeries_No&qvq=q:mercator+1587;sort:Pub_List_No_InitialSort%2CPub_Date%2CPub_List_No%2CSeries_No;lc:RUMSEY~8~1&mi=0&trs=1. Accessed 6 June 2025.

Smith, John.  The Generall Historie of Virginia, New-England, and the Summer Isles… 1624.  Digital History, University of Houston,  www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/disp_textbook.cfm?smtID=3&psid=53. Accessed 6 June 2025. (Specific reference to “Starving Time” in Book IV, Chapter V).

Winthrop, John. “John Winthrop to Sir Nathaniel Rich.” 22 May 1634.  Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society, 3rd series, vol. VII, pp. 31-48.  Digital Commonwealth,  www.digitalcommonwealth.org/search/commonwealth-oai:7w62gb47s. Accessed 6 June 2025.

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Norman WA3 1

Melvin Norman

Dr. Eisel

HIST-2010

June 30, 2025

American Dreams Confronted by Harsh Realities

The history of the United States is commonly cast in broad strokes of optimism, the stories of unlimited opportunity, successful democracy and the progress that was inevitable. However, a detailed examination reveals a persistent gap between the high hopes harbored by individuals and collectives and the complicated, often harsh realities they faced. This week’s readings on the Market Revolution, slavery’s expansion, and the Age of Jackson reinforce my earlier argument, demonstrating that the chasm between expectation and reality is a defining feature of the American experience, particularly evident in the brutal expansion of the cotton economy built on enslaved labor and the deeply exclusionary reality beneath the surface of Jacksonian democratic ideals. The colonial desire to conquer was thwarted and the environment made harsh; the Jacksonian period was a period of promise and expanded democracy to white males but also a period of racial slavery and new industrial insecurities to white workers; and the great depression shattered the established visions of security. All of these eras demonstrate that the American experience was defined by the clash of aspiration and a much more complicated, frequently violent, reality.

The initial European vision of the Americas proved disastrously naive. The map created by Gerardus Mercator in 1587 offered virgin lands of abundance to be conquered easily. The stories of Samuel de Champlain show the precarious nature of relying on Indigenous partners to survive and prosper in trade in New France. In Virginia, the “Starving Time” described by John Smith shows colonists murders and cannibals, starving and feeding on vermin, completely at the mercy of the Powhatan Confederacy they provoked. Moreover, the European notion of the freedom broke when it reached. Although the colonists such as the Puritans were escaping persecution, they built hierarchical societies. The 1634 letter by John Winthrop emphasized conformity, and the Massachusetts Body of Liberties (1641) eloquently proves that freedom of some white male colonists was founded on the enslavement of Africans, oppression of Indigenous people, and subordination of women and dissenters. The hope of common liberation turned into the framework, in which the freedom was inherently connected to the superiority and marginalization.

Readings on the early 19th century shape our understanding of expectations versus lived experience, particularly regarding the economy and democracy. The invention of the cotton gin and the subsequent explosion of cotton production fundamentally reshaped the US economy, creating immense national wealth while brutally entrenching racial slavery and deepening regional divisions. Statistics on cotton stocks in Great Britain highlight the global dominance of this system (Statement of the Stock of Cotton in Great Britain), while Liverpool cotton price lists underscore the volatile but central role of cotton in international markets (Prices of Liverpool Cotton). Crucially, maps depicting the slave population in 1790 and 1860 provide irrefutable visual evidence of slavery’s horrific expansion and concentration (Slave Population, 1790; Slave population, 1860). This explosive growth shattered any naive expectation that slavery was a fading institution or that national economic progress would uniformly lead to greater freedom. Instead, it created a “Cotton Kingdom” whose prosperity was inextricably linked to the forced labor and suffering of millions, defying the expectations of those who hoped the nation’s founding principles would lead to slavery’s demise.

The “Age of Jackson” is often celebrated as America’s golden age of democracy, where the common white man gained unprecedented political rights. While this depiction finds some support in the expansion of white male suffrage, this week’s readings powerfully challenge its completeness, revealing profound exclusions and the harsh realities of economic opportunity for many. Excerpts from state laws governing the franchise between 1777 and 1844 document the formal elimination of property requirements for white men (Excerpts from state laws). However, these same laws explicitly excluded women, African Americans (free and enslaved), and often new immigrants, demonstrating that democratization was strictly racialized and gendered.

For white workingmen flooding into cities or factory towns like Lowell, Massachusetts, the expectation of independence through skilled labor often gave way to the harsh discipline and dependency of industrial wage work. An English cabinet-maker arriving in 1825 recalled initial hopes for better conditions (“I was a Cabinet-Maker by Trade”), but the reality for many, as another workingman lamented regarding 1830s New York City, was that they “must work harder than ever” for diminishing returns and lost autonomy (“They must work harder than ever”). The transformation of labor relations is captured in an 1827 complaint that “The Natural Tie between Master and Apprentice has been Rent Asunder,” replaced by impersonal factory hierarchies (“The Natural Tie”).

The gleaming factories depicted in the “East View of Lowell, 1839” promised order and progress (East View of Lowell, 1839), yet the evolving Lowell statistics tell another story. While the number of looms and spindles surged dramatically between 1835 (Statistics of Lowell Manufactures, January 1, 1835) and 1857 (Statistics of Lowell Manufactures, January 1, 1857), the workforce became increasingly immigrant and potentially more exploited, moving away from the earlier model of “respectable” native-born female operatives. Elias Nason, considering careers in the 1830s, acknowledged prevailing criticism that factories were “schools of vice” (“Factories are talked about”), highlighting the moral anxieties and difficult conditions. Thus, while some white men gained political voice, the economic promise of the era for many workers dissolved into grueling labor, insecurity, and a loss of status, and the democratic gains were fundamentally undermined by the massive expansion of slavery and the exclusion of vast segments of the population.

The cataclysm of the Great Depression shattered the most fundamental expectation: that hard work could guarantee basic security. Eric Foner details pervasive devastation (Foner 789). Within this crucible, the mass exodus of young people as hobos emerged from crushing necessity and family disintegration, as recounted in Riding the Rails. Life on the rails was harrowing, marked by danger, violence, hunger, and deep humiliation, starkly contrasting with any hope of safety or dignity. The New Deal’s CCC offered a partial lifeline, providing stability and purpose for some like Jim Mitchell, but it excluded countless others like Clarence Lee or Peggy De Hart, underscoring the unevenness of recovery.

Generally, this week’s sources on the cotton revolution and Jacksonian America provide compelling evidence that strongly supports my core argument about the enduring gap between American expectations and lived realities. The transformative yet brutal expansion of the cotton economy, vividly documented in trade statistics and slave population maps, created national wealth while defying expectations of slavery’s decline and entrenching horrific human suffering. The “Age of Jackson,” while expanding political participation for white men as shown in franchise laws, simultaneously relied on the exclusion of women, African Americans, and immigrants and exposed many white workers to the harsh, insecure realities of early industrial capitalism, as revealed in workingmen’s narratives and Lowell factory data. The trajectory from colonial encounters through the Jacksonian era to the Great Depression reveals a consistent, sobering pattern: the chasm between expectation and reality is not an anomaly but a defining feature. The American story is less one of unfulfilled hopes than of desires constantly being thwarted, transformed, and painfully accommodated to the often brutal realities of power, economics, and social hierarchy, a continuous process of disillusionment and adaptation.

Works Cited

“East View of Lowell, 1839.” Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/item/2004670383/. Accessed 11 July 2025.

“I was a Cabinet-Maker by Trade.” *A Working Man’s Recollections of America, 1825-35*. HIST-2010 Week 6 Study Unit.

“The Natural Tie between Master and Apprentice has been Rent Asunder.” New York Evening Post, 7 Oct. 1827. HIST-2010 Week 6 Study Unit.

“They must work harder than ever.” A Working Man Remembers Life in New York City, 1830. HIST-2010 Week 6 Study Unit.

de Champlain, Samuel. The Voyages of Sieur de Champlain of Saintonge… c. 1608. American Journeys Collection, Wisconsin Historical Society, content.wisconsinhistory.org/digital/collection/aj/id/6335/rec/1. Accessed 6 June 2025.

Excerpts from state laws governing the franchise, 1777-1844. HIST-2010 Week 6 Study Unit.

Foner, Eric. Give Me Liberty! An American History: Seagull Fourth Edition. Vol. 1, W.W. Norton & Company, 2013.

Massachusetts General Court. The Massachusetts Body of Liberties. 1641. Massachusetts Historical Society, www.masshist.org/database/viewer.php?item_id=96&pid=15. Accessed 6 June 2025.

Mercator, Gerardus. [Orbis Terrae Compendiosa Descriptio]. Map. 1587. David Rumsey Map Collection, www.davidrumsey.com/luna/servlet/detail/RUMSEY~8~1~28190~900059:Orbis-Terrae-Compendiosa-Descriptio-?sort=Pub_List_No_InitialSort%2CPub_Date%2CPub_List_No%2CSeries_No&qvq=q:mercator+1587;sort:Pub_List_No_InitialSort%2CPub_Date%2CPub_List_No%2CSeries_No;lc:RUMSEY~8~1&mi=0&trs=1. Accessed 6 June 2025.

Riding the Rails. Directed by Michael Uys and Lexy Lovell, PBS, 1997.

Slave Population, 1790. HIST-2010 Week 6 Study Unit.

Slave population, 1860. HIST-2010 Week 6 Study Unit.

Smith, John. The Generall Historie of Virginia, New-England, and the Summer Isles… 1624. Digital History, University of Houston, www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/disp_textbook.cfm?smtID=3&psid=53. Accessed 6 June 2025.

Statement of the Stock of Cotton in Great Britain. Hunts Merchant Magazine and Commercial Review, vol.6, no. 1, p. 292. HIST-2010 Week 6 Study Unit.

Statistics of Lowell Manufactures, January 1, 1835. Printed Ephemera Collection, Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/item/rbpe.07401000/. Accessed 11 July 2025.

Statistics of Lowell Manufactures, January 1, 1857. Printed Ephemera Collection, Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/item/rbpe.18501500/. Accessed 11 July 2025.

Winthrop, John. “John Winthrop to Sir Nathaniel Rich.” 22 May 1634. Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society, 3rd series, vol. VII, pp. 31-48. Digital Commonwealth, www.digitalcommonwealth.org/search/commonwealth-oai:7w62gb47s. Accessed 6 June 2025.

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WA#4- Due July 07, 2025

Once you have read this week’s chapter in  American Yawp and analyzed the primary sources listed in the links in the  Week 8 Study Unit  , consider again the theme of expectations and outcomes. How do this week’s readings shape your understanding of early Americans’ expectations versus their lived experiences? Do this week’s readings support your earlier argument? Do they make you rethink it? Revise your big argument as necessary (again, underline your thesis statement) and add to your essay using at least 2 images and 2 documents listed under primary sources above. Use your textbook for context.

As you analyze this week’s sources and textbook chapter, consider the following:

· Many Americans relished the thought of pushing national boundaries ever further outward.  Every step seemed to open up new opportunities. Yet, not every American was enamored with the idea of westward expansion, and many early supporters soon became discouraged, too.

· The domestic commerce in enslaved people played a critical role in American expansion. 

· Images often tell us one story while documents tell us another. 

Week 8 Study Unit

Read, Think, and Write  

Read  American Yawp  Chapter 11  and  Chapter 12 . 

  Primary Sources

Images </p