The history of the American people

Front matter

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Preface

ONE great motive has dominated the content and arrangement of this volume : the preparation of children for citizenship through an understanding of the ideals, institutions, achievements, and problems of our country. No mere almanac of facts, dates, and names, no matter how exhaustive or how presented, can accomplish this purpose. It can be done only by teaching boys and girls to think of events and issues of the living present in the light of their historical past, by giving them above all a sense of historical continuity.

We have sought to catch the deep-flowing and powerful currents of American life, to present them fairly and justly, to engage the interest of the students in them, and to show their significance to the issues of the present hour. Only in this way does history become living. Only in this way can pupils be shown why thfey should study history. Such a story of American life and labor and ideals, if rightly told, must challenge the admiration and faith of those who believe that democracy is not to perish from the earth but to flourish and triumph everywhere.

In carrying out our ideal we have selected those striking features of American history which bear upon and help t© explain our own age. We have conceived of the whole as a vital, moving story with certain very definite and fundamental acts and scenes. We have sought to give to the book that unity which comes from such a controlling purpose, and have subordinated to it all details and collateral matter.

In the execution of this plan we divided the whole field of American history Into periods and topics. Having agreed

VI PREFACE

Upon the fundamentals necessary for a book of historical instruction in citizenship, we then broke each fundamental up into its essential parts. If a famous event or timehonored story required telling, we adjusted it to the unity so planned. At no time did we permit the love of novelty or mere respect for the traditional materials of schoolbooks to betray us into sacrificing the sweep of the magnificent story to the supposed requirements of the all-comprehending "manual."

This plan has necessitated the omission of many of the staples of the textbooks. For example, the space given to the North American Indians has been materially reduced. They are interesting and picturesque, but they made no impress upon the civilization of the United States. In a history designed to explain the present rather than to gratify curiosity and entertain, Indian habits of life and Indian wars must have a very minor position. So it is with many a famous anecdote used to adorn our history tales. They, too, have been sacrificed, with regret but firmness, to the guiding purpose agreed upon at the outset.

In a plan so conceived, the topical method of treatment inevitably takes precedence over the purely chronological method. One striking advantage of this treatment is to bring forcibly to the attention of the students the essential feature of each historical period. It helps them to think of history in terms of great interests and achievements rather than in terms of presidential administrations. The story of America cannot be cut into quadrennial sections. Nevertheless the topical method Is open to some objections, and we have tried to meet them by summaries and tables and in many instances by repetition of facts in different connections. As a result of this treatment students will not gain, for example, the impression that the people of this

PREFACE Vll

country, between 1820 and i860, lived either by presidential administrations or by the slavery controversy alone.

American history should not be presented as a shadowy record of mysterious personages, far removed from the life and labor of the masses. Such history does not interest or inform the child. Furthermore, it is not true history. America has been made by the labors, sacrifices, and ideals of millions of men, women, and children unhonored and unsung in the ordinary books. That is the essence of democracy. The fate of the nation in a very real sense lies in the hands of their sons and daughters who study its history in the public schools. They are to be the makers of history as well as the students of it, and this fact cannot be too often brought home to them. The achievements, traditions, ideals of the past — these are sources of inspiration to those who hold the future In their hands. To help make these an open book to the coming generations Is the underlying purpose of this volume.

In thus recasting American history we think that we have not omitted an event or a date or a personality of cardinal importance. Moreover, we have endeavored to avoid anything that looks like distortion to meet preconceived views. We have sought to be fair to all parties and to give grounds for just judgment. If we have made errors of omission or commission, we shall be glad to learn of them and to correct our record accordingly.

C. A. B.

W. C. B.

New York City, April 19, 1918.

HOW TO OPEN A NEW BOOK

HOLD the book with its back on a smooth or covered table ; let the front board down, then the other, holding the leaves in one hand while you open a few leaves at the back, then a few at the front, and so on, alternately opening back and front, gently pressing open the sections till you reach the center of the volume. Do this two or three times and you will obtain the best results. Open the volume violently or carelessly in any one place and you will probably break the back and cause a start in the leaves. Never force the back of a book.

Contents

CHAPTKR PAGB

T. European Beginnings oi' American History . . . i

I. The Old World Background, i.— II. Life of the People in Europe : the Peasants, 6.— III. The Nobility, the Clergy, and the Kings ; the Merchants and Tradesmen, lo. — IV. The Development of Trade, 14.

Chapter I

The United States is one of the youngest nations of the earth. Centuries before the Declaration of Independence, there were In Europe, Asia, and northern Africa many powerful countries in which dwelt kings, nobles, priests, teachers, merchants, skilled workmen, and peasants. Our sister republic of the Orient, China, had been a civilized nation for thousands of years when the old Liberty Bell at Philadelphia rang out the tidings of the new America on July 4, 1776.

I. The Old World Background

The United States is the heir of all the ages. We are indebted to the most ancient peoples, the Egyptians, Hebrews, Arabs, Greeks, and Romans, who studied the world and human life and recorded their ideas In many books. They did not invent the typewriter or the telephone; but they produced great works of art, built up long-enduring systems of law and government, created the science of mathematics, and went deeply into mechanics and navigation. They wrote learned works and mastered many of the mysteries of nature. To them we owe our religious faith and much of our wisdom,

In the middle and later ages, the Christian religion was spread by Catholic missionaries among the barbarians of northern Europe even to the borders of Iceland; the great states of Spain, France, and England were built up out of warring principalities; universities were founded; and the light of science, which went out after the fall of Rome, was

The Canter-

Men and women of Chaucer's time, less than one

kindled once more. The distant past was linked to an age which saw the discovery of the New World.

The very language spoken by the men who sailed the ships which Columbus commanded had come down from the language of the ancient Romans. The language of the American people, the language in which this book is written, had its origin hundreds of years before any English explorers set foot on this continent. Many a good book and story had been written in it. Some of the theories which we now hold about government, the right to vote, the ownership of property, education, labor and capital, were formed long before America was discovered.

Most of the ideas which we think new and modern had ah-eady been debated in Europe at a time when this country was only a hunting ground for Indian tribes. It was the people of Europe, with religious faith, notions of government, and habits of life already formed who founded the United States.

nuRY Pilgrims.

hundred years before the discovery of America.

Fi m a pTiitttns, h\ R 4 Stothard

America would have been discovered had there been no Columbus; but there could have been no United States had it not been for the tens of thousands of peasants, artisans, merchants, sailors, and adventurers — common men and women — who braved the dangers of long ocean voyages, cut down the forests, cleared the land, built the towns, drove back the Indians, and pushed the line of peaceful homesteads across the American continent until it touched the Pacific Ocean. Our first thought should be, therefore, about the sorts and conditions of men and women who first settled in the New World.

Why the American Explorers and Colonists Came from Western Europe. — If we look at the map of Europe at the opening of the sixteenth century, we see many things that help us in finding out about the beginnings of American history. We discover at a glance why it was that the rival nations which fought to own the New World were, necessarily, Spain, France, and England. They had once been divided, like Germany and Italy, into duchies, kingdoms, and principalities; but at last the people in each of them — as the solid color of the map shows — had been united under one ruler, and were at peace among themselves. Fighting men had to seek adventure away from home. Trade flourished and merchants looked abroad for new worlds to win. All three countries likewise had long coast lines, which induced many of their inhabitants to undertake shipping, trading, and sea-roving for a livelihood.

These countries were moreover far away from the seaports on the eastern Mediterranean through which came the silks, spices, precious stones, and other valuable articles of trade. Accordingly they had to pay heav^y tribute to the Italian merchants who brought Asiatic goods to western Europe, and they were very anxious to open up direct trade with the East. Portugal was In a similar position, but her territory was small and she fell under Spanish dominion in the sixteenth century. Therefore she was not an important factor in the actual settlement of the New World, although her sailors were among the bravest explorers and founded Brazil.

Conditions in Middle Europe in th3 Sixteenth Century. — As w^e move eastward along the map we find very different conditions. Instead of the united Germany of our time, whose ships before the Great War plowed every sea, and whose busy merchants went Into every corner of the earth, we see a country divided into hundreds of petty

States. They were all united, it is true, under what was known as the Holy Roman Empire, but the power- of the emperor was very slight and the rulers of the little states were, for practical purposes, independent. They were frequently at war with one another and often they secured foreign aid in wars upon their own neighbors. Owing to these petty conflicts trade could not flourish and the energies of the people were consumed in civil strife.

Between Germany and Russia stretched the territory of Poland, which was destined, long afterward, to be divided among Prussia, Russia, and Austria, and to disappear from the map altogether. Russia then faced eastward rather than toward Europe; and about as little was known in England of the life of the Russian people as was known of the East Indies and China. The Russians had little to sell to western Europe except timber and furs, and there was not much traffic between the two sections. To the southeast, from the Black Sea to the Adriatic, lay the vast dominion of the Sultan of Turkey, who had no part in European civilization.

The Smaller European Countries. — Far to the north there were the people of Norway, Sweden, and Denmark, who were united under one monarch. They had not yet taken much part in Mediterranean commerce, although there were among them many seafaring men. It is true that the Swedes later set up trading posts on the banks of the Delaware River, after the other countries had shown the way to the New World, but these tiny colonies were soon lost. The Dutch, at the opening of the sixteenth century, were subjects of the Spanish king. It was not until they won their independence by heroic fighting about a hundred years later that they became formidable rivals of the other nations at sea.

Far to the south on the Mediterranean dwelt the Italians.

Their position between Asia and western Europe and their long coast lines invited them to embark on voyages. If anyone is surprised that Italy furnished Columbus to Spain and yet was unable to accomplish anything herself in the New World, a glance at the map explains it all. Italy at the opening of the sixteenth century was broken up into tiny independent states and cities. Italy was a name, not a nation.

II. Life of the People in Europe: the Peasants

Such were the political conditions of Europe, which helped to determine what nations were to struggle for the possession of the New World. We must study also the social conditions of Europe to find out what kinds of men and women were ready to settle in America.

The Peasants. — The first important fact is that the great majority of the people of all the European countries were peasants, engaged in farming. They were not like the American farmers who so commonly own land or rent it and are free to move about over the country at will. Very few peasants owned the fields in which they worked, and they gained little beyond a scanty living, even when they were freemen tilling their own land.

Most of the peasants were serfs or half-slaves bound to the soil. Nearly all land was owned by great landlords — dukes, earls, barons, bishops, and other dignitaries — and the peasants merely had the right to cultivate certain little plots in return for payments made to their landlords in labor, produce, and money. A serf could not leave the estate on which he was born; he could not have his grain ground anywhere except at his lord's mill ; he could not marry without the lord's consent. When he died, the lord took a part of his little flock or herd from his family as a sort of inheritance tax.

Plowing

Sowing

From Prothero's English Farming, Fast and Fresent

Reaping

The peafants gained little beyond a scanty living, even when they were freemen, tilling

their own land.

In England, however, by the opening of the sixteenth century serfdom had almost disappeared; that is, the peasants had become simply renters of farm lands, "agricultural laborers," as they were called in that country. They were not much better off than the serfs on the continent, for their rents were high and only a few of them could ever expect to own plots of land outright. The landlord looked upon them as inferior creatures, and, whenever he went by, they had to take off their hats to him.

Those peasants who left their little villages and were caught wandering about in the towns without any money or occupation were liable to be arrested as "sturdy beggars," branded^ with hot irons, and sent back to the places they had left.

Hozv the Peasants Lived. — The European peasants did not live in farmhouses scattered about over the country as do the farmers in the United States to-day. They dwelt huddled up together in little villages, often under the frowning walls of a great castle where their lord lived. Their houses were almost as crude as the huts of some of the North American Indians. The roofs were made of thatched straw and, more often than not, leaked when heavy rains fell. The walls of the houses were of wood and plaster and sometimes of stone. The floors were of dirt or, occasionally, stone flagging. There were no glass windows except In the houses of the well-to-do. Slits in the walls of the serf's cottage, covered with thin skins, let in enough light to enable the housewife to do her daily tasks. The work of the women was by no means all indoors, for they toiled in the fields with the men from early dawn till dusk, and m.ade "regular hands" at harvest time.

The Peasantry Not Educated. — As for education, the

' An interesting story of tlie life of the English common people in those old days is told in Mark Twain's "The Prince and the Pauper."

peasants had none. They could not read or write, and it was an especially gifted one who could solve the easiest problem in arithmetic. It was customary for each landlord to have a bailiff who kept the books of his estate. The idea that the peasant or his wife and children had minds of their own which were worth training, or that they had intelligence enough to do anything except the simplest farm tasks, had not entered the heads of the kings or the nobles or even of the peasants themselves.

There were, of course, no newspapers. Printed books were just beginning to be circulated in small numbers, so it was a rare village which had a book of any kind or even a manuscript.

The peasants had little knowledge of the world. They were, no doubt, vaguely aware that there were other countries, for often one or two members of the village had been abroad fighting, and had learned something about foreign peoples. Strange rumors and gossip concerning distant parts of the south were picked up from strolling players and peddlers and at the market town, a few miles away, where the peasant bought salt, iron tools, and simple articles from traveling merchants.

The Peasants Had No Part in the Government. — The peasants and serfs paid taxes, and fought in battles sometimes, but they rarely had any share in the government. The countries of Europe were almost all ruled by kings and princes who laid taxes, made laws, declared war, and concluded peace at their own will. To them the idea that the mass of the people laboring in the fields should have any voice in saying how much money they should grant to the government, or when war should be declared, was absurd. The chief duties of the peasants were to pay taxes, to work on the king's highways, and to rear stalwart sons for the king's army.

III. The Nobility, the Clergy, and the Kings; the Merchants and Tradesmen

The Nobility; a Separate Caste. — Two thirds or more of the land which the peasants and serfs tilled was owned

k

The Feudal Castle of a Great Lord

Under the frowning walls of the castle the peasants dwelt huddled up together in little

villages.

by nobles, great and small, who formed a distinct class known as the nobility. The nobles differed greatly among themselves. Some owned small estates from which

EUROPEAN BEGINNINGS OF AMERICAN HISTORY II

they could scarcely wring enough to live in idleness. Others held vast domains composed of hundreds of villages and sometimes containing one or more large towns. They often fought among themselves for more land, and for a long time they furnished practically all of the fighting men for the kings when the latter were at war. From the nobles the kings drew their chief advisers and their army officers.

The nobles everywhere were proud of their families, and they looked down upon the merchants and the peasants. It was hard to "break into" the nobility. Rank was a matter of birth, not of labor or riches or brave deeds, though sometimes a king would make a nobleman out of a commoner because the latter had rendered some important service or in some other way had gained royal favor.

The Clergy. — Scarcely less rich and powerful than the nobility was the class composed of the clergy. At the opening of the sixteenth century, all western Europe was Catholic and under one head of the Church, the Pope at Rome. The Church was a religious or clerical government within the civil government. All western Christendom was divided into districts presided over by archbishops and bishops owing allegiance to the Pope at Rome. Bishoprics were laid out into parishes, and the religious life of each parish was committed to the care of a priest selected, as a rule, by the lord of the village, perhaps with the consent of the bishop. Every country was dotted over with monasteries, where dwelt the monks of the various orders — Benedictines, Carthusians, Franciscans, and others. There were also many convents, to which women turned from the cares and dangers of the world.

The Power of the Clergy. — In each country the thousands of priests, monks, bishops, archbishops, and other religious persons, constituted a distinct class, like the nobility. As the clergy, they were, of course, separated from

Other people on account of the religious vows which they had taken, and of their consecration to religious labors. All were bound into one great brotherhood of the faithful by spiritual ties.

Furthermore, the clergy were as a class extremely wealthy. The village priest was often poor, but the clergy as a whole possessed great estates, and the bishops and archbishops sometimes ruled domains as extensive as kingdoms, kept armies, and controlled the government. It is safe to say that nearly a third of the farming lands of England,

France, and Spain belonged to the clergy.

In addition to the rents and dues which they gathered from the peasants just like other landlords, they collected tithes^ and fees of many kinds.

The Clergy the Only Educated Class. — There were other reasons, in addition to their wealth and spiritual power, for the deep influence of the clergy over the people.

Practically all learning, religious as well as secular, was in their control.

They wrote the books, taught in the schools, tutored princes and sons of noblemen, and did a great deal of

A Monk Illuminating a Book

The clergy was the only educated class.

' It was an ancient custom that a certain portion of the produce of each community should go to the support of the church. This portion, supposed to be about one tenth, was known as the "tithe."

the legal work now intrusted to lawyers. The universities were all under clerical control, anci were, in fact, conducted principally for the purpose of educating clergymen — for the nobles were often quite as ignorant of literature and science as the peasants who tilled their fields.

The Power of the Kings. — At the opening of the sixteenth century in England, France, Spain, and Portugal the government was in the hands of the kings. England had, it is true, a Parliament composed of a House of Lords and a House of Commons, the latter made up of representatives chosen by the smaller landlords of the counties and the burgesses or citizens of the towns. As a matter of fact, however, the English sovereign collected taxes, issued decrees, punished subjects, and declared war about as he pleased. If the Parliament objected seriously to the king's doings, he could easily "pack" it with servile favorites, who would do his bidding. In France, also, there was a shadow of a parliament; but it had even less power than the English legislature and early in the seventeenth century it disappeared altogether. In Spain and Portugal the power of the king was equally great.

Tyrannical as the king sometimes was, he aided in the progress of his country in many ways. He kept peace within his kingdom, for one thing, by suppressing the great barons and nobles who were often not much better than brigands, preying on the travelers and merchants who passed through their domains. The king built great highways, developed uniform laws in all parts of his country, and created a single system of coinage. He maintained good order so that merchants and adventurers might travel in safety from one end of his realm to the- other. He often furnished money for voyages of discovery and exploration.

The Merchants and Tradesmen. — In this way the king helped the growth of a new and Important class in society.

14 THE HISTORY OP THE AMERICAN PEOPLE

the merchants and tradesmen who, from the sixteenth century onward, were destined to play a great part in the history of the world. They took the leadership in encouraging handicrafts at home and bringing goods from foreign lands. Thus there came to be in every country of western Europe a group of men distinct from the clergy, the nobility, and the peasants — a group which owned not land and castles and monasteries, but ships and stocks of goods and money. Being constantly engaged in traveling or bartering with peoples of other countries, the "merchant adventurers," as they were sometimes called, were better acquainted with the world than the other classes. They were prepared for almost any changes that meant an increase in business.

The Artisans. — In the towns were to be found skilled iron workers, weavers, dyers, and other craftsmen engaged in making articles to sell. The artisans of each craft were organized into unions or "gilds," and exercised strict control over their respective industries.

IV. The Development of Trade

The most desirable luxuries, such as spices, rugs, silks, porcelains, and perfumes, came from far away — from Persia, India, China, and other distant lands. These regions had been known to the Greeks and Romans, who carried on considerable trade with them; and even in the Middle Ages, when the barbarians overran the former Roman Empire, all that had been known of the Far East was not wholly forgotten. During the Crusades made by Christian warriors- in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries to rescue the tomb of the Savior from the hands of the Mohammedans, soldiers and travelers went as far east as Egypt and Syria.

Marco Polo. — Toward the end of the thirteenth century, two famous Venetian merchants, the Polo brothers, journeyed so far into China that they reached Pekin, and were welcomed by the Emperor of the Mongols. Later the son of one of the merchants, Marco Polo, set out for China and stayed there many years, visiting different places and becoming acquainted with the habits and trade of the Chinese.

When Marco Polo returned to Venice, in 1295, bringing diamonds, rubies, and sapphires, he excited interest among other adventurous persons. Polo not only boasted among his friends of the things he had seen, but he wrote a book in which he described at length his wonderful experiences in that mysterious land. In this book he told of the magnificent palace of the emperor, with its halls of gold and silver, its jeweled panels, and its gorgeous tapestries. He described the fine dress worn at the royal court — the robes of silk and beaten gold and girdles set with precious stones. Polo spread about the idea that riches fairly grew on trees in the Orient. Naturally, credulous people wanted to go and pick them.

Carr5dng Eastern Goods to Western Europe. — After Polo's time the trade of Europe with the Far East increased steadily. Silks, spices, and other rich stuffs were brought along several overland routes from China, India, and Persia to the eastern shores of the Mediterranean, and thence they were carried principally to the Italian cities of Venice and Genoa. From these ports they were taken by various ways, usually overland, until they reached distant points like London, Paris, and Antwerp. In Germany there was a series of trading centers, Cologne, Bremen, and Liibeck, largely interested in this traffic. Sometimes Italian merchants from Genoa or Venice would venture to send a shipload of the precious goods out through the gateway of i6 the Mediterranean at Gibraltar and up along the Atlantic coast as far as Bruges (in what is now Belgium), and even to London.

Trade among the Western Nations. — In addition to this eastern traffic, there was a growing trade among the nations of Europe during the Middle Ages. Great bales of wool were sent from England to France to be woven into line cloth. In the little towns like London, Paris,

Wini.Eng.Co..N.T.

Thi; Ow Trade Routes from Venice and Genoa to the Far East

Bristol, Bruges, and Antwerp, hand manufactories began to flourish. Even the peasants in the country had to have salt and somd iron, and merchants had early begun to travel about in wagons with these supplies. It was a general practice to have markets or fairs in the principal towns, to which merchants and peasants from the outlying districts would go to trade. The county fair, so famous in the Lhiited States, is simply a relic of an ancient institution which was once a real service to the people.

The Rigid Separation of Classes in Europe. — All the various classes which have just been described — nobles, clergy, peasants, merchants, and artisans — were kept quite separate in the Europe of Columbus' day. The son of a peasant was almost certain to be a peasant, the son of a merchant a merchant, the son of a nobleman a nobleman. The daughters, at the dictates of their overlords or parents, always married in the class to which they belonged. Few of them expected to rise out of the group in which they were born. Only the clergy came from the other classes. Often a clever peasant boy escaped from servitude in the iields and entered the Church, and sometimes the son of a nobleman took up the religious life.