School history of the United States

Introduction

Why should a new School History of the United States be written? Chiefly in order to put at the disposition of the upper grades a book embodying a broadly national point of view and presenting adequate treatment of certain topics which hitherto have been too little stressed in the study of American history.

(1) The European background of our history is clearly sketched, with due recognition of our inheritance of language, law, and political methods from England. Due attention is also paid to other influences from overseas.

(2) Great pains have been taken to treat adequately the various sections of the country, which differ somewhat from one another. Hence there are special chapters on the West, the far West, and the new South, as well as a brief but clear account of the thirteen English colonies and of the distribution of American territory among the colonizing nations.

(3) Another important feature is the fullness of treatment of the social and industrial conditions of the colonies and the later United States, for which twelve of the thirty-seven chapters are set apart.

(4) Wars are treated as intense experiences of the American people; the aim is not merely to give the causes and results, but also to show how the problems of raising armies and carrying on the struggles have been solved, and what was the effect on the life of the community. Military and naval movements are subordinated.

(5) A special effort is made to bring home to the minds of children the way in which our government is carried on. The book includes not only- brief accounts of elections and political events, but also simple descriptions of important parts of the machinery of government, such as the Federal Convention, national banks, and the tariff.

(6) As one of the main purposes of history is to bring boys and girls to understand such political questions as they themselves are likely to confront, about a third of the book is devoted to the period since the Civil War; the effort has been made so to simplify the questions of currency, banking, transportation, and business combinations, as to make them understood by school children as a part of the problems of their own national and state governments.

ALBERT BUSHNELL HART 3

Foreword To Teachers

This School History is intended first of all to be a textbook which children will study. It is illustrated by pictures and maps which ought to be used as a part of their study; beyond that, it contains references and topics which will make it easy to extend the work somewhat outside of the textbook by additional reading and essay writing. All the work of the children is intended to fix in their minds the impression that history is continuous and that those who came before us were living human beings like ourselves.

Recitations. — -The text is written in simple language so as to be easily understood by pupils in the grades. Some subjects, as for example the Federal Convention, banks, slaven,', specie and paper currency, conservation, etc., involve ideas which may be novel to the children, but which every American school child can and should acquire.

The questions at the ends of chapters referring to parts of the numbered sections are about twelve hundred in number, and cover the whole text. Most of them, however, cannot be answered by a mere repetition of the text, and children should be encouraged to make all statements in their own words.

Pictures and Maps. — The illustrative material has been chosen with great care so as to make the text clearer. Children should be encouraged to search the pictures for details, and to use the picture references at the ends of chapters to find other illustrations on the same subjects. The maps also will be found directly helpful to the pupil. The teacher ought to bring out geographical details in the recitations and use the black board for further information. Properly taught, political geography is a great aid to history. The chapter references will lead to the use of additional maps.

Topics. — Where the conditions allow, the work of the children will be enlivened if they can do something constructive. Carefully selected references are therefore made to standard histories, especially the briefer ones, and also to easily available sets of sources; for nothing gives such vitality to a child's knowledge as some use of things actually

Foreword To Teachers 5

written by people of past times. The essay subjects offer a good opportunity to connect the work in English with that in history; and the chapter references will lead to good materials for the knowledge necessary to the essay writer. Children should also be encouraged to read stories which have an historical background, and the references provide for that pleasure.

Scope of the Book. — In the Introduction attention is called to the social and economic trend of the volume; the spirit of modern times calls for knowledge of and constant use of this significant side of history. In the nature of things it is not so easy to study conditions and inventions and methods of business as to take up the personal, narrative part of history ; but social life, the opening up of the frontier, the growth of mechanical devices, and the improvement of business are among the things that count most in the development of our nation. It is just as important for children to learn how their forefathers worked and lived as to learn about their wars and their government.

Brief List of Desk Books. — Every teacher ought to have at hand a few historical aids, some of which should be at all times available for the use of the pupils. A list of the most important books referred to in the chapter references will be found in the Appendix. Here is a carefully selected list of about twenty works out of which the teacher should choose at least one from each of the four groups for personal and desk use:

1. Methods and Materials. American Historical Association, Committee

of Seven, The Study of History in Schools. (N. Y., Macmillan, 1899.) Bourne, H. E., The Teaching of History and Civics in the Elementary and

Secondary School. (N. Y., Longmans, 1902.) Channing, E., Hart, A. B., and Turner, F. J., Guide to the Study and Reading of American History. (Boston, Ginn, 1912.) History Teachers' Magazine (monthly). (Philadelphia, McKinley, 1909.) New England History Teachers' Association, A History Syllabus for Secondary Schools, Part IV. (Boston, Heath, 1904.) — Historical Sources in Schools. (N. Y., Macmillan, 1902.)

2. Collection of Sources. Caldwell, H. W., ed., Survey of American

History. (Chicago, Ainsworth, 1900.) Caldwell, H. W., and Persinger, C. E., eds.. Source History of the United

States. (Chicago, Ainsworth, 1909.) Hart, A. B., ed., American History told by Contemporaries. (4 vols.,

N. Y., Macmillan, 1897-1901.) — American Patriots and Statesmen.

(5 vols., N. Y., Collier's, 1916.) — Source Book of American History.

(N. Y., Macmillan, 1900.) — Source Readers in American History.

6 FOREWORD TO TEACHERS

Hart, A. B., and Channing, Edward, eds., American History Leaflets. (36

nos., N. Y., Simmons, 1892-1910.) Hill, Mabel, cd., Liberty Documents, with Contemporary Exposition and

Critical Comments. (X. Y., Longmans, 1901.) MacDonald, Wm., cd., Documentary Source Book of American History.

(N. Y., Macmillan, 1908.)

3. Single Volumes and Brief Series of Histories. Bassett, J. S., Short

History of the United States. (N. Y., Macmillan, 1913.) Epochs of American History. (3 vols, by Thwaites, R. G.; Hart, A. B.;

Wilson, Woodrow. N. Y., Longmans. Rev. eds. about 1914.) Home University Library of Modern Knowledge. (5 vols, by Andrews,

CM.; Smith, T.C.; MacDonald, William; Paxson, F. L.; Haworth,

T. L. N. Y., Holt, 1911-1914.) The Riverside History of the United States. (4 vols, by Becker, C. L.;

Johnson, A.; Dodd, W. E.; Paxson, F. L. Boston, Houghton Mifflin,

1916.) Fish, C. R., Development of American Nationality. (A history of the

American People from 1783 to the present. N. Y., American Book

Company, 191 3.) Sparks, E. E., The United States of America. (2 vols., N. Y., Putnams,

4. Maps. Shepherd, William R., Historical Atlas. (N. Y., Holt, 191 1,

new ed.)

Table Of Contents

Chapter Page

I. Forerunners of American History (1200-1550) 11

II. Discovery and Discoverers (1000-1604) 23

Chapter I Forerunners Of American History (1200-1550)

1. What is the United States? — Upon any globe that shows the world there will be seen a continent marked " North America." Across it, extending from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific, lies a broad expanse labeled " United States," which is divided into forty-eight parts called " states."

That is our home, three thousand miles west of the coast of Europe and five thousand miles east of the islands off the coast of Asia.

Hundreds of volumes have been written about the United States, telling of its harbors, its rivers, and its lakes, and describing such natural wonders as Niagara Falls with its plunge of one hundred and sixty feet of bright green water; the marvelous Yosemite

Nevada Falls (about 600 feet high) in Yosemite National Park, California

Valley ; the Grand Canyon of the Colorado, scooped out of solid rock, in places six thousand feet deep; and Glacier National Park on the northern border. Still, however interesting this land may be, a description of it would belong to geography and not to history; for history is an account of the origin and growth of the people who live upon a land.

2. The American People. — The phrase "the United States " is sometimes loosely applied to the people who live within the country, as for instance: " the United States has a federal government." We mean by that phrase that the people of the United States live under a federal government. Both at home and abroad, the people of this land are usually known as "Americans," though the native Indians are also Americans and there are other North and South Americans who do not live within our boundaries and rather resent it that we should think of ourselves as especially " The Americans."

This School History of the United States aims to tell how there came to be an American people and what they have done; for the land is important only because it is inhabited by wide-awake, industrious, and thoughtful men, women, and children. It would take a million books to tell the whole story of the beginnings and growth of the United States, for scores of millions of people have come to this land or have been born here, have lived and died here, have worked and suffered here, in order to make the nation. In one small book we can select only a few people, events, and governments, such as stand out most clearly. We can learn much about the history of our country from the lives of the great leaders who made discoveries, founded colonies, built up the states, and helped to make the American nation. We must also learn what was thought and what was done by the plain common people who did the hard work, fought the battles, and elected the statesmen to office. We must try to see them at work, hunting for furs or fishing or farming, weaving cloth, building ships, opening mines, starting factories, running railroads, digging canals, or manning ships of war. W^e must learn what sort of governors, presidents, legislatures, congresses, and courts the American people have had; how they have framed

AMERICAN PEOPLE AND THEIR LAND a system of " government by the people." All these things are parts of our history which young Americans ought to know.

3. The United States a Part of the Greater World. — The physical United States, the land and water which make up the face of the country, cannot be cut off by the hand of man from the rest of the North American continent. That continent cannot be set apart from the rest of the western hemisphere; and that hemisphere is not far away from the eastern hemisphere. They are all parts of the same world. So with the people of the United States. They are not a race by themselves, but are made up of descendants of all the races of Europe and of many of the races of Asia and Africa. No one can write a history of the United States without taking into account the other parts of the earth where the ancestors of the present Americans lived.

We must remember that every American, except those of the native Indian race, is an immigrant or the descendant of an immigrant. Nearly all the immigrants to North and South America down to 1820 came from those parts of Europe which lie on the Baltic Sea, the Atlantic Ocean, and the Mediterranean Sea, or from Africa.

Therefore, the first step in the study of our own history is to find out what kind of nations and people discovered and occupied America.

4. European Countries and Commerce (1200-1500). — Out of

the territory which a thousand years before had been occupied by the mighty Roman Empire, a group of European countries slowly grew up — England, Germany, France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, and the Greek Empire of which Constantinople was the capital. These were all commercial nations; and the boldest and bravest of the people engaged in business m

Only the boldest mariners would venture into unknown seas believed to abound in fabled monsters. (From a picture published in 1555)

and made money with which they could build strong walls and hire soldiers to defend them. Cities such as Venice and Genoa were rich enough to fit out powerful navies and to

Early traders' routes between Europe and Asia. Showing also Portuguese discoveries along the west coast of Africa to 1487

raise armies of foot soldiers. Their pack horses and wagons and boats carried goods along the streams and across the mountains to every part of Europe. Their ships sailed to Constantinople and the Black Sea, to Egypt, to England, to the " Low Countries," now Belgium and Holland, on the southern coast of the North Sea. They fought with land robbers and with sea pirates; they fought with enemies of

COMMERCE WITH ASIA 1 5

their country; they fought with each other; and notwithstanding the losses of those wars they grew richer and more populous.

For thousands of years Europe was constantly receiving goods from eastern Asia, a part of the world which was almost as hard to reach as the north pole is now. It seems strange that people should have bought and sold diamonds and peacocks, sugar and spices, pearls and silks, carpets and drugs, without ever seeing the lands from which they came or the people who produced them. For ages caravans had been passing to and fro, overland from northwestern India to the Caspian Sea and the eastern Mediterranean. For ages Arab traders had carried goods from India up the Red Sea to Egypt. Nevertheless almost the only European who was ever moved to go into those distant lands was Marco Polo, a Venetian, who about 1275 made his way overland to China, heard tales about Japan, and after many years got back home to tell his story in a famous book of travels.

This ignorance about Asia was unfortunate, because China and India knew many things that would have been useful to Europeans. The Chinese Empire was older than, and as great as, the ancient Roman Empire. The Chinese, ages before this time, had invented the mariner's compass, gunpowder, the art of printing, the use of paper money, the making of fine porcelain, and other arts not known in Europe. Yet most of Asia was an unknown land to Europeans.

5. The Renaissance and the Protestant Reformation (1300- i55o)« — About the year 1300 all western Europe began to pass through a sort of awakening which is commonly called the "Renaissance"; that is, the rebirth. Many travelers visited Rome, which though partly in ruins gave them an idea of the wealth and power that the Roman Empire had once possessed. Artists studied the buildings and sculpture, literary men read and translated the ancient writers, and people felt a new desire to learn something about the past and to know what the world was really like. Several Popes were leaders in the Renaissance.

New arts were discovered or brought from distant lands.

A German named Gutenberg invented for himself the art of printing with movable types. Sailors began to use the magnetic compass and felt freer to venture out of sight of land. Learned men began to study chemistry, which was then called alchemy. This new spirit led to a new idea of the education of children so that they might be taught to think more for themselves.

The interest in new things spread to voyages of exploration. At that time nearly everybody in Europe believed that the world was a sort of irregular flat pancake with frozen rivers and burning deserts all around the rim. The best sailors of that time were the Italians. Whenever they came home they made a chart of the lands that they had discovered, for the benefit of other sailors. The method of "sailing on the wind" had been discovered not long before this time and made it safer to go on long voyages in unknown seas, for it was possible to get back home against head winds. To find one's place at sea was very important, and rude instruments, such as the " astrolabe," were invented, by which the navigator could tell how far he was north or south of the equator, though he could not be sure of his easting or westing.

One of the results of the Renaissance was that men began to differ about religion. There was 'the Armenian Christian Church in Asia Minor and the Greek Christian Church in the Greek Empire and Russia. The Roman Catholic Church was the only church in central and western Europe. In 1517 some German priests, monks, and laymen, headed by Martin Luther, set out to reform the church, and after a few years broke away from it. This movement took the name of the Protestant Reformation. It spread into other countries — Hungary, Austria, Switzerland, France, the Scandina\ian countries, and England — and western Europe was thus divided between two religious faiths.

6. European Business Methods (1200-1500). — Under the influence of the Renaissance, which led people to enjoy more luxuries, the trade of Europe increased. The Venetians and the Genoese had most of the trade with the Greek Empire and handled most of the wares that came from the interior

EUROPEAN BUSINESS METHODS 17

of Asia. From Genoa and Venice there were roads by land into northern Europe; and the Spaniards, French, and EngHsh were eager and successful traders. The Germans also were excellent seamen and controlled nearly all the trade in the Baltic Sea. The richest district in Europe was the so-called Low Countries, in which were the cities of Antwerp, Ghent, and Bruges with their great manufactures of fine cloths. Merchants had to seek large profits, for they ran many risks. Vessels were not strongly built, and many were wrecked for lack of lighthouses and charts of the dangerous rocks and shoals. Pirates cruised everywhere, especially in the Mediterranean Sea. When war broke out, and often before it broke out, vessels from one country would be seized by vessels of war on the other side, or by other armed merchant ships. Sailors especially dreaded the row-galleys, propelled by slaves so that they could move against wind and tide, and could thus

A row-galley of the i6th century. The lilies on the banners show that it is French. Notice that the craft also carries sails

capture a vessel that was becalmed. Nothing in all the history of mankind has been more cruel and pitiless than the treatment of the galley slaves, who were chained to their oars and forced to work by the lash. Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice is a lively picture of how business was conducted at that time, how money was borrowed, and how a merchant could be ruined by wrecks and pirates.

i8

Interior of the Grammar School in Stratford-on-Avon where Shakespeare went to school

7. European Ideas that Affected America. — The reason for telling this brief story of European conditions is to make us understand what kind of people crossed the ocean and founded new communities in the New World. For the first colonists did not think of themselves as Americans at all. They were simply Spaniards or F'renchmen or Englishmen, who chose to live across the sea, and who continued to live as nearly as they could in the same way as at home.

Among the ideas which the colonists all brought with them was the European notion that some people were kings, some lords, and some just common people. They felt that whoever was king must be obeyed, no matter what his character was; and that a man or family with a noble name was more important than ordinary people.

Another European idea was that the Christians ought to convert the heathen. The Catholics had for ages sent missionaries among the pagans in Europe, Asia, and Africa. They continued that good work in the Xew World, and were followed in it by the Protestants. In European cities were schools and universities, and similar schools and colleges were set up in America.

EUROPEAN IDEAS 1 9

The methods of European trade were used in the New World, and the rival merchants of different countries fought with and plundered each other, much as they did at home.

We Americans ought to be especially thankful for certain European ideas about human freedom. Both Catholics and Protestants thought it wrong to hold Christians in slavery, and hence nearly all the Europeans who settled in America were treated as free persons. On the other hand, most Europeans thought it right to make slaves of pagans and therefore saw no objection to enslaving the Indians in America.

A privilege highly prized in Europe was a written document commonly called a " charter," by which a king granted lands or rights which later kings had not the power to take away. Some such charters were granted to the whole nation, particularly the famous " Magna Charta," or " Great Charter," extorted from King John of England in 1215. In it he promised that " No freeman shall be taken or imprisoned — unless by the lawful judgment of his peers, or by the law of the land." The English colonists never forgot that they were " freemen," and could not be deprived of their liberty so long as they obeyed the laws.

Another form of charter was a grant from a king to an individual or an association or " company," which gave the right to plant colonies and to govern the settlers. Such charters were the beginnings of the English colonies of Virginia and Massachusetts.

8. Summary. — The foregoing chapter is a brief account of the people and the countries from which the people of the United States have sprung.

The words " United States " mean the land in which we live, and also the American people who live here. This history tells how they came to this continent, what they have done, and what sort of country they have built up.

The people of western and southern Europe, from which America was colonized, were strong, prosperous, and fond of trade. They received goods from Asia, though they never went there. About the year 1300 there arose among them what we call the Renaissance, a period in which people began to write new books, make new inventions, think out new forms of religion and government, and explore new countries. The Renaissance was followed by the Protestant Reformation, which divided western Europe into two religious groups.

One of the results of the Renaissance was a greater interest in strange countries, and many voyages were made in spite of the dangers of shipwreck and pirates. Frcm these countries, after the discovery of America, came thousands of immigrants who looked upon themselves not as Americans but as Englishmen, Frenchmen, or Spaniards that had chosen to live across the ocean from their home country. They brought with them their home ideas about kings and nobles, about the church and education, about trade, freedom, and the pri\ilege of doing business or founding colonies under a written charter which could not be taken away from them.

Maps. Cheyney, European Background, 25, 35, 55. — Shepherd, Hist. Atlas, 81, 87, 99.

Histories. Atkinson, Europ. Beginnings of Am. Hist., ch. xx. — Becker, Beginnings, 1-17. — Brooks, Story of Marco Polo. — Fiske, Discovery of Am., I. ch. iii; New England, ch. i. — Moore, Industrial Hist., ch. i. — Southworth, Builders of Our Country, I. ch. ii. — Sparks, Expansion of Am. People, ch. i. — Zimmern, Hansa Towns.

Sources. Cheyney, Readings in Engl. Hist., ch. xil. — Ogg, Source Book of MedicBval Hist., chs. .\xvi, xxvii. — Old South Leaflets, nos. 30, 32. — Robinson, Readings in Europ. Hist., I. §§ 161-168 (Medieval life, Hansa, etc.), 218-230 (Renaissance), II. §§ 231-249 (Reformation). — Whitcomb, Source Books of Renaissance.

Side Lights and Stories. Charles, Chronicles of the Schonberg-Cotta Family (Reformation). — Irving, The Alhambra. — Pyle, Men of Iron (Chivalry in England). — Scott, The Talisman (Crusades). — Yonge, The Armourer's Prentices (Henry VIII).

Picttxres. Mentor, serial nos. 60, 83, 113, 116. — Traill and Mann, Social England (new illustr. ed., pt. ii). — Wright, Hist, of All Nations, IX, X.

(§ i) I. What is meant by the words "United States"? 2 (For an essay). Describe one of the following: (a) Niagara Falls; (b) Grand

Canyon of the Colorado; (c) Yosemite Valley; (d) Glacier National Park. 3. What is the " history " of a country?

(§ 2) 4. Who are "The Americans"? 5. Why is it hard to write the history of the United States? 6. What things should be treated in a history of the United States?

(§ 3) 7- Is the United States geographically separated from the rest of the world? 8. Are the people of the United States a separate race? 9. Who are the immigrants?

(§ 4) 10. What were the principal European countries when colonization began? 11. How did the Europeans carry on trade? 12. What products came from Asia? 13 (For an essay). Account of Marco Polo's travels. 14. What did the Chinese do for civilization?

(§ 5) 15- W'hat was the " Renaissance"? 16. What were some of the early inventions? 17. How did the early peoples navngate the seas? 18. What was the Reformation?

(§ 6) 19. How were goods distributed through Europe? 20. What were the richest parts of Europe? 21 (For an essay). Account of pirate life. 22. What were galley slaves?

(§ 7) 23. Mention some European ideas brought by the early colonists. 24. What was a king? 25. What was slavery? 26. What was a charter? 27. What was a trading company? 28. What was a colony?

Columbus discovered land in America, October la, 149a

Chapter II Discovery And Discoverers (1000-1604)

9. Discoveries West and East (985-1487) . — When Europeans knew so little of neighbors who could be reached by a land journey eastward, it is not strange that they had no knowledge of wild people who were living in an unknown land at the distance of several weeks' journey to the westward across an untraveled sea.

Yet in one part of the known world there was a tradition of such a land and people. The Scandinavians, often called Norsemen, were the boldest people in Europe, splendid sailors and great fighters. Some of them occupied Iceland. In the year 985 a party of Icelanders reached Greenland and little colonies were planted there. In the year 1000 an Icelander named Leif Ericson, "the Lucky," sailed beyond Greenland to a coast farther south which is now supposed to have been Labrador or the islands of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. According to certain " sagas," or traditions handed down by word of mouth, the Norsemen found " self-sown wheat," " vines," and " grapes," which perhaps were only wineberries. Some natives, whom they called " skraelings, swarthy men and illlooking," came in skin canoes to meet them; " even the hair of their heads was ugly." After a few voyages the Norsemen ceased going to America and the story of their voyages seems not to have been known outside of Iceland.

In fact, most Europeans were not interested in western voyages. They wanted to find a road eastward by sea. Their object was to avoid the Ottoman Turks, from central Asia, who about the year 1300 broke into the Greek Empire, occupied Asia Minor, finally captured Constantinople (1453), and pushed up through the Balkan region into Hungary.

DISCO\^RY AND DISCOVERERS

They were a rude people who could not keep order on the land routes into Asia. Somewhat later they captured Egypt also and cut ofT the Red Sea route to India. Hence the European merchants wanted to find a direct passage by sea; and the Portuguese, beginning about 1420, sent ships down the west coast of Africa, hoping to sail around that con-

9 1 Columbus's First Voyage U02 ^2 .. Second •• 1493-96

y 3 Cabots U97

4 VfbpuciusforRpain H99 * 5 Columbus's Third Voyage 1198-1000

6 Cabral 1500

7 Vespucius for Portugal 1501-02 g Columbus's Fourth Voyage 1002-01 9 Verrazaoo 1621,

Routes of early voyages to America

COLUMBUS DISCOVERS AMERICA 25

tinent (map, page 14). Finally, in 1487, Bartholomew Diaz discovered the Cape of Good Hope and the open sea to the eastward, and it was expected that the Portuguese would shortly reach the coast of Asia by water. But such a route to India would be roundabout and more than 10,000 miles long.

10. Columbus Discovers America (1492). — If the world was really flat like a pancake, the Portuguese had followed around the edge and there was no other sea route to the Orient; but suppose the world was a globe — ^then anybody could get to China and India by sailing directly westward. The idea that the world is round was a very old one, but had been rather lost sight of, till it was taken up by a Genoese sailor named Christopher Columbus. He was born in Genoa, probably in 1451, the son of a wool worker. He sailed in some of the African voyages, and visited Iceland. He turned his mind to this question of westward sailing and asked advice of an Italian astronomer, Toscanelli, who assured him that the world is round, sent him a map, and guessed that the distance from Portugal westward to the continent of Asia was only about 6000 miles. It is really about 12,000 miles. Columbus figured out that Japan must be 4000 miles away. ,