I would like to welcome Dr. Michael J. Mullin to The History Book. Dr. Mullin is a professor at Augustana College. Dr. Mullin is the first professor to participate with us in Project Beyond the Classroom and for that, I would like to thank him very much. It is the goal of Project Beyond the Classroom to provide opportunities for students to learn about American History in a different way. Being able to learn from an esteemed professor of history with seemingly limitless knowledge can benefit us all. As a class, we brainstormed and came up with a list of questions we would like to know a little bit more about. With the help of Dr. Mullin, we have an opportunity to dig a little deeper in American History. Again, thank you, Dr. Mullin. My students are excited to read your thoughts.Questions:
1. Why did the Declaration of Independence exclude certiain groups such as Native Americans, African Americans and women yet the document was based on individual freedom and rights? Was it ever changed?
2. Do you think the Patriots could have won without foreign help?
3. What 2 people do you think were the MOST important in the American Revolution? Why?
4.What do you think was the key to American victory?
5. What was the level of Native American involvement in the American Revolution?
6. How did the Continental Congress fund the American Revolution?
7. What if the Patriots would have lost?
Thank you very much, we are all looking forward to hearing from you.
26 comments:
Mr. Klumper,
I'm not sure my first response went through, so I'm trying a second question.
1. Why did the Declaration exclude certain groups? Has it been changed?
Let us start with the latter part of the question. No. The Declaration of Independence was not rewritten after it passed in July 1776. What students might be surprised about is what was taken out before it was ratified. In the original version, Jefferson included a paragraph abolishing slavery. South Carolina and Georgia delegates said they would never vote for the Declaration if it included such language. Jefferson told them that was 'tough,' and tried to keep the paragraph in the document.
At that point, John Adams and Benjamin Franklin, both of whom had been assigned the task of helping Jefferson, intervened. They told TJ that he should take out the paragraph for the sake of "unity." They argued that they would come back and end slavery after independence had been won. That argument won the day, and Jefferson took out the paragraph ending slavery.
As for women and Native Americans, Abigail Adams asked her husband to "remember the ladies," for "all men would be tyrants" if left to our design. This was too much. In 18th century America (and Europe), politics was the domain of men, and most men could not envision women participating. For Native Americans, things were less clear. Many, if not most Indian groups, sided with the British during the war. They became the "enemy" and therefore, the founders excluded them from the Declaration of Independence.
What is interesting to note about all of this, is that the founders who were the most adamant "republicans" were also slave holders. While they disliked slavery, they did not believe that African-Americans were the equal of them. The could not conceive of giving African-Americans equal rights.
Question #3, two most important people?
This is perhaps the toughest question to answer. Let me explain why. Historians often break the Revolutionary period into two parts--before 1776 and after 1776. Many historians choose to call the war between America and Britain, not the American Revolution, but the War for Indepedence. The reason goes back to John Adams. He once wrote: "the American Revolution was in the hearts and minds of the American People before the first gun was fired at Lexington and Concord." What this means is that Adams believed the Revolution was about attitudes and political philosophy. The War for Independence merely allowed Americans the opportunity to put their revolutionary views into action. Wow, that was a long winded introduction. Now for some answers.
If you are talking about the pre-1776 period I would begin with Patrick Henry in Virgina (think of his Stamp Act speech) and Sam Adams in Massachusetts. They set the table for the others.
If you are asking who was most important for independence, I would say Thomas Jefferson (Declaration of Independence) and Thomas Paine (author of Common Sense).
If you are taling about winning independence, then George Washington (he understood something no one else seemed to understand; he did not have to defeat the British, only outlast them) and perhaps Benjamin Franklin (who worked to get us foreign recognition). There are many others, but those two are very safe.
The Key to American victory was multifaceted.
First, George Washington kept his army together from 1775 to 1783 (and longer along the colonial frontier). Washington knew that if he could keep his army together the British would grow tired of the war. Remember what started much of the argument was the role of taxes. British people did not want their taxes increased to defeat a bunch of colonists. The longer the war went, the higher taxes would have to go. Eventually, the people of England grew tired of the conflict. British defeat at Yorktown allowed those opposed to the war to clamor for its end in England.
Second, Britain was never fully commited to fighting the United States. While the Battle of Saratoga was occuring (1778), Britain had its best naval officer, Captain James Cook, off exploring the Pacific Ocean, where he 'discovered' Hawaii in 1778. If England really wanted to win, why would they send naval ships off on explorations? Also, Britain was concerned with dynastic issues in central Europe. Remember that the British monarchy was originally from Hanover in Germany. They still retained the Hanoverian throne. With revolution in Poland, the English monarchy needed to concentrate on Europe rather than America after 1781 (this is according to the historian Jonathan Dull--and no his book was not Dull).
Another factor was leadership. America discovered important generals and leaders at key times. American generals such as Washington, Lee, Greene, and Sullivan understood the war changed over time. The British generals never outgrew their early assessment of Americans as cowardly.
These are some of the reasons why America won the war.
Thank you very much for your input; I'm glad you explained things better to us.
Thank you for the info Mr. Mullen.
You have helped us out quite a bit, so i thought that thanks were in order.
Thank you Mr. Mullen. I appreciate you doing this for us. I hope I have you as a teacher.
Thank you Dr. Mullin
Thank you for answering our questions in a very in-depth way. thank you for your time.
Thanks Mr. Mullin for responding to our questions. Now we can use your information for class and other projects.
Oh wow... those were some awesome exlpanations! Thanks a lot, Mr. Mullin!:)
Thanks a lot for explaining these topics to our class, I think it really helped.
Thank you for taking the time to answer these questions and better explain it for us Mr. Mullin. (:
I find this time period -- as well as any other historical time period -- to be very fascinating...
Thank you for explaining the questions we posed in-class to ask you. They answers are very helpful, and very interesting.
Thank you for taking some of your time to post a few of your thoughts on our classroom blog.
Thank you very much for answering our questions, we really appreciate it.
Thanks you so much
Thank you for answering these questions that we asked you. I appreciate it.
Thank you so much for taking your time to help our class. What you have written is very interesting..
Thanks
Thank You For taking time to do this for our class
thank you Dr. Mullin for answering our questions and have a great day!
Thank you, I think what you said helped me understand more =D
Thank you for taking time out of your day to write to us. Thanks alot. :)
Thanks,DOC
Thank you Dr. Mullin for answering these hard questions for us that are easy for you.
thank you dr. mullin for anwsering are question. i rely aprresat you giving us some of your time to anwser some of are questions. so thank you vary much.
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