Freedom Just Around the Corner: A New American History: 1585-1828

658 Pages·2004·2.68 MB·English

by  Walter A. Mcdougall

f r e e d o m
j u s t a r o u n d
t h e c o r n e r
A N e w
A m e r i c a n H i s t o r y
1 5 8 5 – 1 8 2 8
walter a. mcdougall
To the immigrant Barclays, Brueggemans, McDougalls, and Voltzes,
thanks to whom I am American
Standing on the waters casting your bread
While the eyes of the idol with the iron head are glowing.
Distant ships sailing into the mist,
You were born with a snake in both of your fists while a hurricane was blowing.
Freedom just around the corner for you
But with truth so far off what good will it do?
Jokerman dance to the nightingale tune,
Bird fly high by the light of the moon,
Oh, oh, oh, Jokerman.
—Bob Dylan

contents
Epigraph iii
Preface ix
American Archetypes
What Some Great Novels Tell Us About Ourselves 1
Saint George and the Dragon
The Original Spirits of English Expansion 17
Planters, Patroons, and Puritans
The Chesapeake, New Netherlands, and New England, 1607–1660 38
Barbadians, Yorkers, and Quakers
The Carolinas, Middle Colonies, and New England, 1660–1689 71
Papists, Witches, Scofflaws, and Preachers
Colonists at War, Business, and Prayer, 1689–1740 99
Germans, Four Sorts of Britons, and Africans
Peoples and Cultures of the Thirteen Colonies to 1750 136
Soldiers, Speculators, and Savages
The French and Indian Wars Turn Britain into the Enemy, 1740–1763 168
Sons of Liberty and “Two-Bottle” Tyrants
Why Independence Became an Imperative, 1763–1775 202
vi Contents
Patriots, Tories, Slackers, and Spies
The Not-So-United States, Hustling to Be Born, 1776–1783 239
Federalists, Antis, Vestals, and Victims
The Brilliant Coups That Begat the Constitution, 1783–1790 280
Master Builders, Party Men, and a Rogue
Freemasonry, Republicanism, and America’s Future, 1791–1800 321
Reluctant Nationalists, Eager Imperialists
Having Fashioned a State, Americans Turn into a Nation, 1801–1815 371
Engineers, Pioneers, Peddlers, and Democrats
The Rise of the West, 1816–1828 422
Travelers
Apotheosis and Apocalypse in American Culture, c. 1830 498
Notes 515
Index 605
About the Author
Praise
Other Books by Walter A. McDougall
Credits
Cover
Copyright
About the Publisher
vii Contents
maps
Physiographic Map of the United States 41
Linguistic Families of North America 102
English Colonies 143
North America East of the Mississippi in 1763 199
Campaigns in New York State 258
The Siege of Yorktown 275
United States After 1783 287
Ratifying the Federal Constitution 309
The War of 1812 417
Slavery in the United States, 1821
(After the Missouri Compromise) 471
Canals and the Cumberland Road, 1785–1850 493
Distribution of Population 1830 503
The first American political cartoon appeared in Benjamin Franklin’s
Pennsylvania Gazetteon May 9, 1754. During the run-up to the climactic
French and Indian War, Franklin implored the American colonies to “Join or
Die.” In this version, which appeared in the Boston Gazetteon May 21,
1754, the snake hisses a tempting corollary: “Unite and Conquer.” (Courtesy
of the Massachusetts Historical Society, Boston)
The rattlesnake motif graced any number of battle flags, standards, uniform
buttons, posters, and pamphlets during the American War of Independence,
not least the first U.S. Navy jack with its thirteen red and white stripes,
snake, and warning, “Don’t Tread on Me.” This banner, carried by the First
Virginia regiment of militia in 1775, added the equally popular slogan
“Liberty or Death.” (From Benson John Lossing, Pictorial Field Book of
the Revolution[New York: Harper & Brothers, 1860])