A Nation Rising (28 page)

O'Sullivan, John L., 176

 

Pacheco, Louis, 152

Paddison, Joshua, 232

Paine, Thomas, 190n

Pakenham, Edward Michael, 99–100

Panama, xviii, 223–24, 225–26

Peace of Ghent, 66

Penn, William, 190n

Pennsylvania Freeman
, 194–95

Pensacola, Florida, 71, 102

Perkins, Nicholas, 7–9, 14–15, 52

Philadelphia, 3, 19, 36, 212

abolitionism in, 181, 194–95

anti-black/pro-slavery violence, 181, 195

Bible Riots, xxii, 181, 185–94, 197

cholera epidemic, 186, 191

Irish in, 185–94

Main Line, 186

typhus epidemic, 187

Pieh, Segbe, 123–25

Pierce, Franklin, 219

Pizarro, Francisco, 225

Plame, Valerie, xix, 60

Plea for the West, A
(Beecher), 208

Poe, Edgar Allan, xvi

Polk, James K., 182, 242–43, 246

Prevost, James Marcus, 33, 34

Prince ton University, 18, 21–25, 34

Prohibition, 89

Prossner, Gabriel, 134–36

Putnam, Benjamin, 147

Putnam, Israel, 31

 

Quakers, 198

“Quasi-War,” 39, 49

Quebec Act of 1774, 199

Quinn, Peter, 187

 

Reagan, Ronald, xiii, 48

Rediker, Marcus, 113

Red Jacket, Seneca Chief, 67

Reeve, Tapping, 23–24, 25

Reid, Robert, 173

Religion, xxii, xxiii

anti-Catholicism, 197–206, 214

anti-Semitism, 214

“Benevolent Empire,” 208

Calvinism, 18, 20–21, 203

Catholic Church, size of, 200

Catholic-Protestant sectarian hatred and violence, 181, 183, 185–94, 197, 200–201, 206–8

first American colleges and, 23

Fort Caroline massacre and, xxiv

Great Awakening, 18–19, 21, 83, 196

Mormons, 202, 203

“New Lights” vs. “Old Lights,” 21

Protestant America, 187, 193–94, 197, 199, 200

Second Coming movement, 201, 203

Second Great Awakening, 22n, 203, 208–9

slavery question and, 181

Ursuline Convent burned, 181

Whitefield evangelism, 19–20

widening of American spiritual life, 202–3

Remini, Robert, 78, 80

Republican Party, 16, 36, 38, 39, 40, 45, 110

Republican Party (Whigs), 212, 213

Frémont as first presidential candidate, xxi, 212–13, 221, 252

Revere, Joseph Warren, 245

Revere, Paul, 245

Revolutionary War, 23n, 25, 33, 35

Aaron Burr and, 13, 24, 26–33

Andrew Jackson and, 79

assault on Quebec, 26–30

Benedict Arnold and, 26–27, 32

death of Montgomery, 29–30

George Washington and, 26, 31–33

Reynolds, David S., xx, 95, 164

Reynolds, Maria, 38, 86

Richmond Recorder
, 86

Richter, Daniel K., 81

Roosevelt, Franklin D., xiii

Ruiz, José, 125–26

Rush, Benjamin, 50

Russia, 217, 234

 

Sac Indians, 158

St. Augustine Herald
, 145

Saint Domingue.
See
Haiti San Francisco, 230, 232, 233n

Santa Anna, Antonio López de, 217

Schiffler, George, 189

Schmidt, Leigh, 200

Schuyler, Philip, 26, 28, 36

Scott, John Morin, 191

Scott, Winfield, 160, 171, 219

Seminoles, xxi–xxii, 13, 159–60, 161

Abraham and, 168

alliance with Britain and Spain, 100, 162

Andrew Jackson and, 102, 161–63

assimilation of, 162

“Black Seminoles,” 167, 168–69

Dade's Massacre, xxii, 149–55

fugitive slaves and, 105, 166–69

removal from lands, 145, 153, 155, 161–63, 169, 170–71, 175

Treaty of Payne's Landing, 169

Seminole Wars, 103, 142, 145, 173–74

betrayal of Halleck, 175

betrayal of Osceola, 169–72

Dade's Massacre, 145, 149–55, 169

First, 103

Second, 145, 161–63, 167

Third, 175

Thompson ambush, 153–54, 155, 169

Sequoya of the Cherokees, 160–61

Serra, Fra Junípero, 231–34, 233n

Seventh-Day Adventists, 201

Shaw, George Bernard, xxvi

Shawnees and the War for America, The
(Calloway), 67

Shippen, William, 23, 23n

Sides, Hampton, 244, 247

Silverman, Kenneth, 204

Sioux Indians, 104

Slave rebellions

account by Northup, 121–22

Amistad
, 112, 122, 125–27

Creole
, 112, 115–20, 139–40

Denmark Vesey's, 110, 138–39

Deslondes', 113, 137–38

fear of, 127, 134, 163, 165, 166

Gabriel's, 134–36

Nat Turner's, 111, 145, 163–66

revolts in colonial America, 128

Toussaint and Haiti, 128–31

Slavery, xiv–xv, 19.
See also
Abolitionism

“barracoon,” 124, 124n

Ben Franklin and, 19

Compromise of 1850, 219

as divisive issue, 122140–41, 145

Florida's “Negro Fort,” 101–3

France emancipates slaves, 129

George Washington and, 141–42

Great Britain abolishes, 109, 111

Middle Passage, 124

militant defense of, 166–69

Missouri Compromise, 110

myth of docility of slaves, 141

number, of, xvi, 65

owned by Native Americans, 71

prohibition on literacy, 134, 136

Robert E. Lee and, 141, 142

slave laws passed, 166

slave ships, 113, 121, 124

slave trade, 120–21, 123–25

Spain and fugitive slaves, 10, 51

Thomas Jefferson and, 86–87, 141, 142

U.S. abolishes transatlantic trade, 109, 123

U.S. Constitution and, v, 53

Slave Ship, The
(Rediker), 113, 120–21

Smith, Al, 214

Smith, Jean Edward, 48

Smith, Joseph, Jr., 202

Smuggling, 88–89

South Carolina, 110, 138–39

Spain

anti-Spanish sentiment in U.S., xx, 9–10, 51

anti-Catholic sentiment and, 200

Burr's expedition and, 47–51

California and, 231–34

explorers, 150, 224–25

Florida and, 90, 100, 103, 109, 251

fugitive slaves and, 162

Indian alliances, 71, 85, 89, 162

James Wilkinson as agent for, 49

Mexican independence and, 251

New World territory, xx, 10, 48–51, 218, 251

Stampp, Kenneth M., 166

Stannard, David E., 233

Stiles, Ezra, 199

Stockton, Robert F., 244, 245, 246

Stowe, Harriet Beecher, 205, 219, 235n

Styron, William, 166n

Sutter, John Augustus, 217, 248, 249

 

Taney, Roger B., 111

Tarleton, Banastre, 79

Taylor, Zachary, 173, 218, 219, 242–43

“Tea party” movement, xxiii

Tecumseh, 65, 67, 82–85, 161

Telegraph, 181, 203, 237

Tennessee, 3, 91, 92, 93–94, 182, 236

Teskwatawa (The Prophet), 66, 84–85

Texas, 111, 182, 217, 242

They Saw the Elephant
(Levy), 248

Thompson, Wiley, 153–54, 155, 170

Thoreau, Henry David, 250

“Tippecanoe and Tyler too,” xvii, 84

Tocqueville, Alexis de, 160, 181

Toussaint L'Ouverture, 128–33, 134, 135, 141, 171

Transcendentalism, 203

Trotsky, Leon, 130

Trumbull, John, 29

Turnbull, David, 124

Turner, Frederick Jackson, 49

Turner, Nat, 111, 145, 163–66, 166n

Tustenuggee, Halpatter (Alligator), 152

Twelve Years a Slave
(Northup), 122

Two Years Before the Mast
(Dana), 221, 234

Tyler, John, 112, 242

 

Uncle Tom's Cabin
(Stowe), 205, 219, 235n

Unitarianism, 203

United States.
See also
American West; Native Americans; Slavery

election of 1800, 41

historical truth vs. myth, xxiii–xxvi

“Jubilee” celebration, xv–xvi

Main Street vs. Wall Street, 11

north-south divisions, 11–12

political parties, 40, 87

population growth, xv–xvi, 65

power of unchecked presidency, 59–60

states admitted as free states, 109, 110, 111, 182, 218, 219

states admitted as slave states, 3, 66, 109, 110, 111, 182, 217

technological advances, xvi, 181, 203, 237

territorial expansion, xv, xx, xxi, 4, 10, 47, 59, 65, 69, 76, 99, 103, 156, 176–77, 208, 218, 241–43, 251 (
see also
Manifest Destiny; Mexican War)

trial of Aaron Burr, 52–57

United States Constitution, 5

framers, xiv–xv, 17–18, 53

presidential elections and, 40, 42n

Seventeenth Amendment, 36n

slavery and, v, xv, 53

Twelfth Amendment, 42n

United States economy

banking system, 10–12, 39–40, 156

Embargo Acts and, 65, 88–89

gold rush and monetary policy, 249

Panic of 1837, 173, 194, 196–97

postwar panic of 1873, 253

United States Supreme Court

Amistad
slave mutiny, 122, 126

on confiscation of Cherokee lands, 161

impeachment trial of Chase, 45–46

John Marshall and, 4, 5, 52, 55–56, 111

principle of “judicial review,” 4, 52, 55–56

Roger B. Taney appointed, 111

University of Pennsylvania Medical School, 23

Ursuline Convent burning, 181, 206–8

Utley, Robert, 85

 

Van Buren, Martin, 60–61, 112, 126, 145, 157, 172, 173, 197, 218–19, 238

Vesey, Denmark, 110, 138–39

 

Waking Giant
(Reynolds), xx

Wallace, William, 77, 98

War Hawks, 89

War of 1812, xvii, 13, 58, 66, 71, 76, 82, 86, 90, 173

Battle of New Orleans, 66, 77, 99–100

Indian allies, 71, 85, 162

last engagement, Florida, 100

Treaty of Ghent, 66, 100

Warren, Joseph, 245

Washburn, Wilcomb, 85

Washington, D.C., 3

Washington, George, xiv, 3, 26, 27, 31–33, 49, 55, 173

Aaron Burr and, 30, 31–32, 38–39

Hamilton and, 10–11, 38–39

opposition to blacks in army, 127

as slaveholder, 141–42

Washington, Madison, xviii, xxii, 116–20, 139

Weatherford, William (Red Eagle), xviii, xxi, 74–75, 77, 80, 84, 96–97, 98

Webster, Daniel, 139, 140, 172

Wheelan, Joseph, 35, 56

Whig Party, 110, 172, 212, 219

Henry Clay defeated, 182, 242

White, Hugh, 172

Whitefield, George, 19–20, 27

Whiting, Anne Beverley, 240

Whitman, Walt, xvi

Whitney, Eli, 3

Whittier, John Greenleaf, xvi, 195

Wilkinson, James, 48–50, 54–55, 90–91

Wilson, Joseph, xix, 60

Wimmer, Jennie, 248

Wirt, William, 111

Wisconsin, 218

Witham, Larry, 20

Witherspoon, John, 24–25, 34

Wollstonecraft, Mary, 34

Woodbine, George, 101

 

Yale University, 22n, 23, 199

Yellow fever, 33

Young, Brigham, 202

As I wrote at the conclusion of
America's Hidden History
, leaving the safety of familiar terrain and venturing into the unknown can be a daunting business. For me, leaving the comfortable landscape of the “Don't Know Much About” series to write about American history in a different style and format was both exhilarating and scary. But as the stories in this book demonstrate, setting out for new territory has been an essential ingredient of the American experience for centuries. And as many of these stories also prove, the results can be tragic.

With that in mind, I am again grateful for the assistance of many friends and colleagues who provided guidance and companionship on the difficult journey that is a new book. It would be impossible for me to make these journeys without the encouragement and support of a great many people who have helped me out at every step along the way.

That large group of people begins with some strangers: the many
librarians at institutions large and small—from the New York Public Library to my little Dorset public library—who are committed to knowledge, learning, and the book. I also honor the people who work passionately at historic sights around the country. They provided much valuable insight and information.

David Black, my dear friend and literary agent, and his excellent team at the David Black Agency have also provided stalwart assistance over the years. I am very happy and grateful to have Dave Larabell, Leigh Ann Eliseo, Susan Raihofer, Gary Morris, Joy Tutela, and Antonella Iannarino behind me.

In the time that the “Don't Know Much About” series has been published at Harper Collins, I have also been very lucky to have the support of a dedicated publishing group behind me as well. For their continued support, I heartily thank Carrie Kania, Diane Burrowes, Leslie Cohen, Elizabeth Harper, Jen Hart, Hope Inelli, Carl Lennertz, Nicole Reardon, Michael Signorelli, and Virginia Stanley. I am also indebted to my publicist, Laura Reynolds.

It has also been my privilege to meet and work with an editor of great skill, intelligence, and enthusiasm. Elisabeth Dyssegaard once again played a crucial role in shaping and recasting this work. I greatly value her judgment and wish her well. I am also grateful to the other members of the Harper Collins team: Kathryn White-night, Matthew Inman, John Jusino, Susan Gamer, Mary Speaker, Karen Lumley, Richard Ljoenes, and Ben Loehnen.

My children, Colin Davis and Jenny Davis, have always provided me with joy and inspiration. I treasure their wonderful spirits and the intellectual challenges they bring to our dinner table.

And, finally, this “Hidden History” venture really started many
years ago, when my wife, Joann, said to me, “You love American history. Why don't you write about it?” That's how it all began. And in this and every other journey we have shared, she has been “constant as a northern star.” No pioneer could ask for a better guide and companion.