Jessie Fremont Richard Li, Aidan Malone, Hriman Shah History of the Americas 1: IB September 26, 2017 Jessie Fremont, daughter of a prominent Missouri Senator, was the personification of a pampered, bureaucratic youth; she had strong connections with other high-profile politicians in Congress and a high-caliber private education. With such an indulgent and lavish childhood, it seemed likely that Fremont would grow into a spoiled and wanting adult. However, defying this logic just as Fremont defied social norms, she “matured into an assertive and determined young woman, who enjoyed flouting convention.”1 Since Jessie Fremont had an inbred hatred of slavery from her mother, Elizabeth McDowell, she addressed the controversial …show more content…
issue of abolition in a subtle manner but in numerous ways. Using her writings, letters and her husband’s executive position as a forefront - she had a reputation of being a tact and diplomatic politician who was influential throughout the North for her executive force and personal charm - Jessie Fremont shared her beliefs on slavery with the people of the United States. Although born to a Southern family that owned slaves, Fremont’s father’s changing beliefs and her own experiences caused her to look upon slavery as a plague upon the world. In a letter to another notable writer and abolitionist of the time, Lydia Maria Child, Fremont states that “[she] would as soon place [her] children in the midst of smallpox, as rear them under the influence of slavery.”2 Fremont would not only keep this strong conviction for the rest of her life, but also try to spread this belief through subtle comparisons - not by outwardly stating her antislavery position. When Fremont’s husband, John Clay Fremont, known as the “Pathfinder” because of his prominent expeditions of the unexplored west, finished his five mapping and surveying routes through the Midwest, he set his sights upon the highest political position in the United States - the Presidency.
In 1856, Mr. Fremont was offered a nomination by the newly founded Republican Party- built upon anti-slavery ideals, Mr. Fremont quickly accepted. With his wife’s support, Mr. Fremont initiated his presidential campaign. With the help of Jessie Fremont’s charm and wit, Mr. Fremont began to obtain considerable momentum and strength in his campaign for presidency. Jessie Fremont held an undisputedly large influence over her ambitious husband, with newspapers writing, “Beautiful, graceful, intellectual and enthusiastic, she will make more proselytes to the Rocky Mountain platform in fifteen minutes than fifty stump orators can win over in a month.”3 With such an exemplary show of Mrs. Fremont’s abilities, she began to cement her position as one of the few stateswomen of the time. Despite John Fremont’s eventual defeat by Democratic Candidate James Buchanan, the Fremont couple continued to exert their influence on the United States. During the outbreak of the civil war, Lincoln appointed John Fremont as the Leader of the Department of the West in the July of 1861, operating out of St. Louis, Missouri. Shortly after Mr. Fremont was awarded this position, he, under the influence of his wife, issued a controversial military proclamation on August 30, 1861. The most disputed and contentious section of this edict stated, “All persons who shall be taken with arms in their …show more content…
hands within these lines shall be tried by court-martial, and, if found guilty, will be shot. The property, real and personal, of all persons in the State of Missouri who shall take up arms against the United States, and who shall be directly proven to have taken active part with their enemies in the field, is declared to be confiscated to the public use; and their slaves, if any they have, are hereby declared free.”4 In short, John Fremont placed the state of Missouri under martial law, decreed that all property of rebels be confiscated, and ordered that if slaves were confiscated from these rebels, automatic manumission was to be performed. John Fremont also called for capital punishment upon any secessionists who were seen bearing arms against the Union within the state of Missouri. The political ramifications of John Fremont’s proclamation were monumental- it divided Republicans, alienated Democrats further, and began to sway border states toward succession. Lincoln, only hearing of Fremont’s actions from the newspapers, was troubled, stating that emancipation was “not within the range of military laws or necessity.”5 After also bearing witness to the furor in the border states, Lincoln’s decided he would federally rescind the proclamation. However, politically savvy enough to recognize the complications and conflicts that would come with a direct order for recall, Lincoln decided to walk this slippery slope cautiously - he wrote to John Fremont, “Allow me to therefore ask, that you will, as of your own motion, modify that paragraph.”6 In response to this request, John Fremont worded a letter that contained his wishes to keep the proclamation, sending Jessie Fremont in addition to try to alter Lincoln’s decision. Jessie Fremont, with her unparalleled charisma and anti-slavery moral compass, attempted to convince Lincoln to the best of her ability. Lincoln described her as “quite a female politician”7, while newspapers portrayed her as “envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary.”8 Despite this, Jessie Fremont’s efforts were in vain - Lincoln removed John Fremont from his position as director of the Department of the West on November 3, 1861 and rescinded the proclamation. The Fremont proclamation may not have freed the slaves and ended as a debacle, however, this statement against slavery was one of the precursors to the issuance of the emancipation proclamation in January 1st, 1863. With that chapter of their life closed, the Fremonts moved on, out of the political limelight.
Jessie continued her abolitionist and feminist work, was essential to the rise of the Sanitary Commission, which enabled women to work for Union troops by sewing, clothing, or working in army hospitals. She also continued to work with significant figures in the feminist and abolitionist movement-later the civil rights movement, lasting until her death in 1902, where she was commemorated and celebrated for her acts that led to the betterment of humanity in the United
States. Bibliography "Frémont's Slave Proclamation". Harper's Weekly. September 14, 1861. Frémont, “Great Events,” in The Letters of Jessie Benton Frémont, 265-266. “Fremont and the Blairs,” San Francisco Bulletin, Oct. 5, 1861. “Give Em’ Jessie,” Boston Daily Atlas, June 27, 1856. Goodwin, Doris Kearns (2005). Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln. New York: Simon & Schuster. McPherson, James M. (1988). Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era. New York: Oxford University Press. To Lydia Maria Child from Jessie Benton Frémont, Jul./Aug. 1856, in The Letters of Jessie Benton Frémont, ed. Pamela Herr and Mary Lee Spence (Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1993), 122. PETRULIONIS, SANDRA HARBERT. "Jessie Ann Benton Frémont (1824–1902)." Legacy 18, no. 2 (2001): 232-38. http://www.jstor.org/stable/25679391.
Professor Thomas Slaughter has provided a most thorough overview of the Whiskey Rebellion, which he asserts had by the time this book was conceived nearly two centuries after the episode transpired, had become a largely forgotten chapter of our nation's history since the time of the Civil War. He cites as direct evidence of this fact the almost complete absence of any mention of the event in many contemporary textbooks of the conservative era of the 1980's, which this reviewer can attest to as well, having been a high school student in the late 1970's, who never heard of the Whiskey Rebellion until years later. Building off of his own dissertation on the topic, the author convincingly shows that the Whiskey Rebellion was in fact an event of tremendous importance for the future of the fledgling United States of America, which was spawned by the head-long collision of a variety of far-reaching forces and factors in the still quite primitive environs of western Pennsylvania that summer and fall. Slaughter contends that one must place the frontier at the center of the great political debates of the era and fully explore the ideological, social, political, and personal contexts surrounding the episode in order to fully understand the importance of its place in American history. In doing so the author has produced a very readable work that may be enjoyed by casual readers, who will likely find the individual vignettes which open each chapter particularly fascinating, and a highly useful basis of further research by future scholars into the importance of the frontier region as it relates to events on a national scale in those early days of the republic.
Brown had his mind made up to travel on the pathway to Harpers Ferry right when he was born and believed he is the only one that has to lead this battle. His parents were passionate Calvinists who taught their children to view life as an endless fight contrary to evil. The battle of John Brown was on a more personal level where he remembered a memory when he was five years old and his mother whipped him for stealing a vast amount of brass pins. In addition, the battle was somewhat on a political point as well because Brown and his family considered that the sincere had to be spectators against the bad people in America. They assumed that the biggest evil during their time has to be none other than the establishment of slavery. Therefore, the father of John Brown replaced their family residence in northeast Ohio into a stop on the Underground Railroad and made his son into a dedicated abolitionist. Brown’s developing participation in the movement in the 1830s and ’40s made him set his commitment as well as the rising nationwide fight over slavery’s position in a country supposedly devoted to equal opportunity. During this era, abolition...
Prior to the Civil War, the young United States of America was in a period of rapid expansion. Hoping to find prosperity in new land acquired by the Louisiana Purchase, Americans ventured westward. Along with this expansion, however, came the increasing tension over slavery. Conflicts arose, and in one particular town, where a slave named Celia was accused of the murder of Robert Newsom, her owner, tested the ambiguous laws and human rights ideals of that age. In “Celia, A Slave,” Melton A. McLaurin identifies the moral dilemmas confronting Americans regarding slaves and conveys how the patriarchal system and “abused” usage of law benefited the powerful and disadvantage those outside of the group, especially people of color. By critically analyzing and cross examining historical events and evidence with records of Celia’s trial, McLaurin offers an enlightening view of the prominent issues of slavery that plagued antebellum southern society.
Jennie Wade was the only civilian to die in the battle of Gettysburg. Jennie Wade was born in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, and died there just twenty short years later. The battle of Gettysburg was then known as one of the bloodiest battles in the American civil war. This caused a single civilian to lose their life, Jennie Wade was that person to die at Gettysburg. Many other civilians died in the war itself, but only she died at Gettysburg.
...gro Slavery tried to influence the reader all too much. Instead, Stampp preferred to let the statistics and anecdotes tell the tale which allowed both scholars and non-scholars to draw their own conclusions based upon the evidence presented. Because of this, The Peculiar Institution is an invaluable source of information regarding both the institute of slavery as well as southern culture during the ante-bellum period. Personal anecdotes as well as impersonal plantation records solidify this work as an important piece of research that seeks to present the realities of slavery to a modern audience. This impersonal presentation provides a more scholarly approach to a long sensitive topic of debate in the United States. It serves as a reminder to the modern generation of the horrors of slavery and seeks to debase the romantic notion of the paternalistic slave holder.
The American Civil War not only proved to be the country’s deadliest war but also precipitated one of the greatest constitutional crises in the history of the United States. President Lincoln is revered by many Americans today as a man of great moral principle who was responsible for both preventing the Union’s dissolution as well as helping to trigger the movement to abolish slavery. In retrospect, modern historians find it difficult to question the legitimacy of Lincoln’s actions as President. A more precise review of President Lincoln’s actions during the Civil War, however, reveals that many, if not the majority, of his actions were far from legitimate on constitutional and legal grounds. Moreover, his true political motives reveal his
“I would rather be right than be President,” stated Senator Henry Clay concerning the issue of finding a resolution for the countries burning issue during the mid 1800s. Even though Clay lost the presidential election of 1849 to Zachary Taylor, he was determined to find a solution to America’s prevailing debate of whether or not to extend slavery into their new territories. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo had officially ended the war with Mexico and political warfare in the Unite States was a rising issue. Part of the treaty forced the Mexicans to give up tracts of their land including Texas, California, and all the land between. This left the Americans in a predicament of whether or not to admit California to the Union as a free state, therefore making the ratio of free to slave states imbalanced. Ever since the Missouri Compromise of 1820, the balance between slave states and free states had been maintained, but California began to petition Congress to enter the Union as a free state. Since Texas was a slave state, they claimed land north of the 36°30' demarcation line for slavery set by the 1820 Missouri Compromise. However, the Texas Annexation resolution required that if any new states were formed out of Texas land; the land north of the Missouri Compromise line would become free states. As Clay worked for months to develop a compromise to solve the nation’s issue, he received help from Stephen Douglas, a young Democrat from Illinois. On January 29, 1850, after several other people suggested ideas that failed, the two men presented a series of bills that were ushered through Congress. California’s wish was granted and they were entered as a free state, officially disrupting the equilibrium in the states. The second bill...
Despite each individual having different circumstances in which they experienced regarding the institution of slavery, both were inspired to take part in the abolitionist movement due to the injustices they witnessed. The result is two very compelling and diverse works that attack the institution of slavery and argue against the reasons the pro-slavery individuals use to justify the slavery
Abraham Lincoln’s original views on slavery were formed through the way he was raised and the American customs of the period. Throughout Lincoln’s influential years, slavery was a recognized and a legal institution in the United States of America. Even though Lincoln began his career by declaring that he was “anti-slavery,” he was not likely to agree to instant emancipation. However, although Lincoln did not begin as a radical anti-slavery Republican, he eventually issued his Emancipation Proclamation, which freed all slaves and in his last speech, even recommended extending voting to blacks. Although Lincoln’s feeling about blacks and slavery was quite constant over time, the evidence found between his debate with Stephen A. Douglas and his Gettysburg Address, proves that his political position and actions towards slavery have changed profoundly.
What makes A Century of Dishonor an important book is that it chronicled the government of the United State's continual mistreatment of the American Indian. In it Jackson exposed the government by documenting how treaties were made and broken, how the Indians were robbed out of their lands, and how bad reservation life was for them. Up until 1881, when Jackson’s book was published, the government was not held accountable for its actions but Jackson was able to blame the government for this maltreatment and criticize its behavior publicly. It is also significant because Helen Hunt Jackson didn’t stop only at revealing government actions but through it advocated respect for American Indians and proposed ways to change the government and its ways and views about Native Americans.
The 1890s-1920s is what is referred to today as the Progressive Era. This was a time in which many people rose to push their beliefs and create a better future for America. These people called themselves progressives and they would make America the place we know today. They addressed important issues such as women’s rights, working conditions, and temperance. One such reformer was a woman named Mary Harris Jones. Mary Jones, later known as Mother Jones, was one of the most successful and effective progressive reformers of all time due to her experiences, work in labor agitation, and effective speeches.
After teaching for 15 year, she became active in temperance. However, because she was a women she was not allowed to speak at rallies. Soon after meeting Elizabeth Cady Stanton she became very active in the women’s right movement in 1852 and dedicated her life to woman suffrage.
To understand the desperation of wanting to obtain freedom at any cost, it is necessary to take a look into what the conditions and lives were like of slaves. It is no secret that African-American slaves received cruel and inhumane treatment. Although she wrote of the horrific afflictions experienced by slaves, Linda Brent said, “No pen can give adequate description of the all-pervading corruption produced by slavery." The life of a slave was never a satisfactory one, but it all depended on the plantation that one lived on and the mast...
Micheal P. Jhonson Abraham Linclon, Slavery, and the Civil war, Selected Writing and Speeches ( New York. University of Pennsylvania , 2001)
There are certain historical facts, which have been lost in the public memory, as certain legends have taken the place of reality. In order to fully understand what happened, it is necessary to comprehend that the Northern states were far from being uniformly the champions of equal rights that is generally indicated by popular belief. By this understanding, that is that the abandonment of African-Americans did not constitute a drastic change of moral position for many people in the North, it is easier to understand their subsequent actions in ignoring the plight of African-Americans in the South after the Reconstruction era. An example of one of these overlooked historical facts would be that there were still slaves in the nation’s capital in 1860; and, at that time, the President-elect, Abraham Lincoln, offered, “to support a constitutional amendment to insulate the institution of slavery in the slave states from federal interference. ”6....