Upload
brady-dill
View
216
Download
0
Embed Size (px)
Citation preview
8/13/2019 An Awesome Essay
1/4
Brady DillMr. LeeENG Honors 1126 November 2013
Rebellion Chorus
Revolutionary Americas Thomas Paine fanned the burgeoning flames of rebellion
against British taxation with his pamphlet Common Sense , the sales of which ultimatel y
reached half a million copies (438), and which functi oned as a landflood that [swept] all before
it[sweeping aside] much of the lingering allegiance to King George III [and] paving the way
for the Declaration of Independence ( Ibid). As the embers of one fire often start another,
Paines writings birthed (or closely coincided with) written threats of rebellion on behalf of
womens rights from Abigail Adams and Hannah Griffitts, the anti-slavery movement from
Thomas Jefferson and Absalom Jones, and religious freedom from Tecumseh and George
Washington.
Adams and Griffitts were two of the primary womens -rights figures of the 18 th century
and their writings expressed a dream for gender equality. In a letter to her husband, John Adams,
prior to the completion of the Declaration of Independence, Abigail Adams beseeched him to
Remember the Ladies, and be more generous and favourable to them than your ancestors,
(443), in constructing the new Code of Laws, (443). Indeed, Abigail Adams went so far as
to express sexist views against men, portraying them as having pusillanimity and cowardise,
(Ibid ), and stating that all Men would be tyrants if they could, (Ibid ). She finishes with a
threat: If [particular] care and attention is not paid to the [ladies] we are determined to foment a
[rebellion], and will not hold ourselves bound by any Laws in which we have no voice, or
Representation, (Ibid ). Griffitts, a female poet, more subtly expresses her feminist views in
The Female Patriots. Since the Menare keptso quietly downLet the Daughters of
8/13/2019 An Awesome Essay
2/4
Liberty nobly arisetrust me a Woman , by honest Invention, / Might give [America] a Dose of
Prevention, (436-7). Men were off fighting the Revolutionary War; in their absence, women
took over and ran their farms and businesses. In The Female Patriots, Griffitts expresses
disdain for the mens failure in the war (how they are keptso quietly down) and praises
womens role in the war, saying that they can do a better job than their husbands. Griffitts drives
her point home when she signs her alias as A Female before publishing the poem in the
Pennsylvania Chronicle (436).
Jefferson and Jones were major voices for the pre-Civil War anti-slavery movement.
Jefferson wrote the first draft of the Declaration of Independence, which was then revised byCongress before being signed. Congress astonished Jefferson by removing his substantial anti-
slavery section: [King George III] has waged cruel war against human nature itself, violating its
most sacred rights of life and liberty in the persons of a distant people who never offended him,
captivating and carrying them into slavery in another hemisphereDetermined to keep open a
market where MEN should be bought and sold, he has prostituted his negative for suppressing
every legislative attempt to prohibit or restrain this execrable commerce, (451). Jefferson
believed that Congress had mangled his draft, (448), by removing his tirade against slavery in
the Declaration of Independence. Jones, a freed black slave, wrote a Petition of the People of
Colour to the President, Senate, and House of Representatives, (462) , seeking anti-slavery
measures in the Declaration . He stated that [we] humbly desire you [the writers of the
Declaration of Independence] may exert every means in your power to undo the heavy burdens,
and prepare the way for the oppressed to go free, that every yoke may be broken, (463), for the
solemn compact, (462), of the Constitution is violated, by a trade carried on in a
clandestine mannerthose poor helpless [slaves], like droves of cattle, are seized, fettered, and
8/13/2019 An Awesome Essay
3/4
hurried into places provided for this most horrid trafficleft to deplore th e sad separation of the
dearest ties in nature, husband from wife, and parents from children; thus packed together, they
areinhumanly exposed to sale, (Ibid ). Both Jones and Jefferson sought anti-slavery reforms in
the Declaration, and their labor came to fruition nearly a century later with the passing of the
Thirteenth Amendment.
Both Tecumseh and Washington, the one a Native American and the other the head of the
government crushing Native society, fought for religious freedom in their writings and their
actions. F rightened by United States seizures of three million acres of [Native American] land,
(464), Tecumseh foresaw the later suppression of Indian culture and religion, which includedcutting mens hair, forcibly breaking up religious ceremonie s, and banning traditional rituals and
marital practices, (Maier, 546). [Inspired by] the Great Spirit, (465, Belasco), Tecumseh
threatened to kill American conspirators among the Native chieftains (Ibid) if they didnt
discontinue their war against Native land and society. Newly elected as President, Washington
responded to fears of Jewish prosecution with the promise that the Government of the United
States [would give] to bigotry no sanction [and] to persecution no assistance, (460), and the
wish t hat the Children of the Stock of Abrahamcontinue to merit and enjoy the good will
of the other inhabitantsand there shall be none to make him afraid, (Ibid).
Rebellions abounded in the Revolutionary era: Washington and Tecumseh sought
religious freedom, Jones and Jefferson pled against slavery, and Griffitts and Abigail Adams
fought for womens rights. The Declaration of Independence served as the beginning of a new
America, and these turmoils reflected different groups visions for the country as it was forged in
its war of separation.
8/13/2019 An Awesome Essay
4/4
Works Cited:
Belasco, Susan, et al. The Bedford Anthology of American Literature, Volume One:
Beginnings to 1865 . Print. St. Martins: 2008. 18 Sept. 2013.
Maier, Pauline, et al. Inventing America: A History of the United States . 2nd Edition.
Print. W. W. Norton & Company: 2006. November 2013.