Letters and Recollections of John Murray Forbes

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

Letters and Recollections of John Murray Forbes "•''j|f.,,H! , li.-tT ':-':;n: 1" ,-'.. ' ^. "tit''* **"' ^ /i^'^ ^ V 1 C^.S^' Park St, Church, Boston ...,??sss??^^^^ //t /0-L..^3-e^ f^id^/yiyyUiy.- ''m^n/a^av ^W>S/4(^?-<?^ v?A-w/ /d^S£ Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2011 with funding from The Institute of Museum and Library Services through an Indiana State Library LSTA Grant http://www.archive.org/details/lettersrecollect01forb LETTERS AND RECOLLECTIONS OP JOHN MURRAY FORBES EDITED BY HIS DAUGHTER SARAH FORBES HUGHES IN TWO VOLUMES VOL. L BOSTON AND NEW YORK HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY ^t)e 0itaec?i&E ^lep^, Camiiritige 1899 COPYRIGHT, 1899, BY SARAH F. HUGHES ALL RIGHTS RESERVED PREFACE About twelve years ago my father put together in manuscript a couple of volumes of reminiscences of his life ; and these, together with a vast collec- tion of letters to him, press copies of letters from him, and other papers, he left in my charge, mainly that I might make selections from the whole and put them into more definite form for his grand- children. I am led to believe, however, that his life and character were exceptional enough to make some account of him of general interest. With the view of giving this to the public I have made extracts from such parts of his notes as seem to be to the purpose, and have selected from the letters and papers those which explain and give color to the scenes and events recalled. In a preliminary chap- ter I have given some general description of my father's habits and characteristics, such as may help a reader who did not know him the better to under- stand what follows. I publish these things as the record of an American citizen who, keeping himself iv PREFACE in the background, never stinted work, or money, or service of any sort, for the country he loved so well. I wish to return most grateful thanks to all the relatives, now surviving, of my father's correspond- ents, who have kindly permitted the use of letters written to him. Above all, I wish to record my deep obligation to Professor J. B. Thayer, to whom I am indebted for all legal notes ; and for endless kindness and help, in more ways than I can here enumerate, in the preparation of this work. S. F. H. Milton, July, 1899. CONTENTS OF VOLUME I CHAPTER I INTBODUCTIOIf Genealogical. — Anecdotes of ancestors. — Business and home habits. — Intense work in war time. — Ways of impressing ideas. — Warrington's pen portrait. — Ways of giving. — Petitioners. — Life at Naushon. — Business and other maxims. — Deer hunts. — Duck-shooting. — Freedom from accidents. — Romantic side of character. — Tastes. — Love of oratory. — 0. W. Holmes's poem on eightieth birthday 1 CHAPTER n SCHOOL DATS Birth in Bordeaux. — Childhood in Milton. — School at Andover, and Round Hill, Northampton. — Boy letters. — Opinion of Headmaster Cogswell. — Departure from school, aged fifteen 37 CHAPTER III FIRST VENTUBES Experiences of counting-house life in Boston. — Letters to his brother Thomas in China. — Death of this brother. — First voyage to China, aged seventeen. — Clerkship in Russell & Co., Canton. — Appointed confidential agent of Houqua. — Return to Boston, aged twenty. — Mar- riage to Sarah Hathaway in 1834 53 ; yi CONTENTS OF VOLUME I CHAPTER IV LIFB IN CHINA Return to China. — Partnership in Russell & Co. — Sick- ness and death of Handasyd Cabot. — Trip to Manila with Francis Hathaway. — Fire in Canton. — Letter to his brother Bennet on railroads. — Fancy ball given at Macao. — Offended Portuguese. — Voyage home in 1837 69 CHAPTER V TEN YEARS OP BUSINESS Financial crisis of 1837. — Storm weathered. — Trip to Farrandsville, Pennsylvania. — Rough traveling. — Let- ters from Houqua. — First hearing of Wendell Phillips. — Boston business. — Ships. — Instructions to captain of Acbar. — Tree-planting. — Horses. — Johnny Cra- paud : his epitaph. — Birth of twin daughters, 1838 ; of eldest son, William, 1840. — Death of brother-in-law, William Hathaway. — Accident on trial trip of schooner Ariel. — Views of safe expenditure by a merchant. — Growing interest in politics. — First interest in railroads, 1846. — Refusal to buy land in Chicago. — Relief for Irish famine. — Mount Savage blast-furnaces, etc. tedious business. — Practical joke 90 CHAPTER VI RAILROADS AND OTHER ENTERPRISES. SLAVERY Advice to commission merchant in San Francisco, June, 1849. — Opinion on expedition to Japan. — Letter from Florida, 1852. — Trip to England, 1855 ; letter from London. — Letters to Nassau Senior and Russell Sturgis. — Purchase of breadstufEs for Barings. — Exchange of letters with J. H. Cowper on strained relations between CONTENTS OF VOLUME I vii North and South. — Succession (1857) to Governor Swain at Naushon. — Decrease of mercantile and in- crease of railroad business. — Letter to George Ashburner on prospects of Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Kail- road 127 CHAPTER VII THE BUSINESS PANIC OF 1857. — THE IMPENDING POLITICAIi CRISIS William Sturgis on Naushon amusements. — Financial panic, September, 1857. — Trip to England for Michigan Central Railroad, accompanied by two daughters. — Loan obtained, and Barings reassured as to American credit. — Withdrawal from Whig party. — Letter to N. M. Beckwith, January, 1858, on political situation. — Advice to abolitionists, and to son at coUege. — Polit- ical turmoil. — John Brown a guest at Milton ; bis account of fighting in Kansas ; his death. — First elec- tion of Lincoln. — Letter to Nassau Senior. — Death of eldest daughter. — Letters from widow of Alexis de Tocqueville, and Charles Sumner 165 CHAPTER Vni THE BEGINNING OF WAR Peace Congress in Washington, February, 1861. — Plan for relief of Fort Sumter defeated. — Massachusetts' in- fluence. — Opening of war. — Southern press. — Help- ing Governor Andrew. — Rescue of merchant ship from Norfolk. — Part taken in dispatch of Massachusetts troops to the South. — Purchase of steamers for State, and instructions to captains in pursuit of Confederate pri- vateers. — Sundry letters on politics. — Wendell Phillips on the battle of Bull Run. — Navy bill. — Shipbrokers and their ways. — Letter from Assistant Secretary of the Navy 187 viii CONTENTS OF VOLUME I CHAPTER IX THE CONDUCT OF THE WAR Right of privateering upheld. — Exchange of letters with C F. Adams. — Sundry letters on political situation. — Iron plates for warships. — Correspondence with Nassau Senior (autumn 1861) on the war and Mason and SlideU 233 CHAPTER X THE SANITARY COMMISSION November, 1861, commission of eldest son in First Massa- chusetts Cavalry. — Funds sent to prisoners in the South. — Letter to Nassau Senior on the situation. — Action as to Sanitary Commission. — Correspondence with Dr. BeUows and F. L. Ohnsted 258 CHAPTER XI FINANCE IN WAR TIME Fight against legal tenders. — Correspondence with W. P. Fessenden and W. C. Bryant on finance. — Various work in war time. — Letters to Aspinwall, Beckwith, Clifford, Ripley, and Bryant 275 CHAPTER XII JOURNEY TO THE SOUTH Charter of vessels for Navy Department. — Ordered South by doctor. — Trip to Beaufort, South Carolina. — Letter home descriptive of passage. — Charger BiUy. — The " Gideonites." — Life in Beaufort with eldest son and his regiment. — Yacht Azalea. — General Hunter and enlistment of blacks. — Letter to Edward Atkinson on unfair treatment of the Educational Commission (Gideon- ites) 292 CONTENTS OF VOLUME I ix CHAPTER XIII THE PROSECUTION OF THE WAB Correspondence with Parke Godwin, C. B. Sedgwick, and Charles Sumner, June, 1862, on war matters. — Letter from Dr. De Wolf to Mrs. Forbes. — Beginning of the New England Loyal Publication Society. —Minor reforms needed. — Letter from Governor Andrew. — Difficulties in recruiting. — Appointment of General Grant. — Prelimi- nary proclamation of emancipation. — Correspondence with W. C. Bryant, W. P. Fessenden, and Joshua Bates on the situation. — Letters from Navy Department on fitting out of Confederate steamers in England. — Let- ter from C. B. Sedgwick, December, 1862, on state of feeling in "Washington. — Draft of electors' letter to President Lincoln.—Letters from Charles Sumner on proclamation of emancipation 314 ILLUSTRATIONS John M. Forbes Frontispiece From a miniature about 1832 by Chenery, an English min- iature painter of some note in China at that time. P^Be John M. Forbes 132 From a crayon by Seth Cheney made about 1851. John M. Forbes 160 From a bust by his granddaughter, Edith Forbes, made from daguerreotypes taken about 1856. "I said never was such force, good meaning, good sense, good action, combined with such domestic lovely behavior, such modesty and persistent preference for others. Wherever he moved he was the benefactor. It is of course that he should ride well, shoot well, sail well, keep house well, administer affairs well ; but he was the best talker, also, in the company : what with a perpetual practical wisdom, with an eye always to the working of the thing, what with the multitude and distinction of his facts (and one detected continu- ally that he had a hand in everything that has been done), and in the temperance with which he parried all offense and opened the eyes of the person he talked with without contradicting him. Yet I said to myself, How little this man suspects, with his sympathy for men and his respect for lettered and scientific people, that he is not likely, in any company, to meet a man superior to himself. And I think this is a good country that can bear such a creature as he is."— R. W. Emerson (of J. M. Forbes). — Letters and Social Aims, River- side edition, p. 100. See, also, Emerson in Concord, p. 121. LETTERS AND RECOLLECTIONS OF JOHN MURRAY FORBES CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION It is usual to give some account of a man's ances- tors when beginning the story of his life ; but in the present instance a memory of my father's feel- ing about the matter prevents my following such a precedent at any length.
Recommended publications
  • X********X************************************************** * Reproductions Supplied by EDRS Are the Best That Can Be Made * from the Original Document
    DOCUMENT RESUME ED 302 264 IR 052 601 AUTHOR Buckingham, Betty Jo, Ed. TITLE Iowa and Some Iowans. A Bibliography for Schools and Libraries. Third Edition. INSTITUTION Iowa State Dept. of Education, Des Moines. PUB DATE 88 NOTE 312p.; Fcr a supplement to the second edition, see ED 227 842. PUB TYPE Reference Materials Bibliographies (131) EDRS PRICE MF01/PC13 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS Annotated Bibllographies; *Authors; Books; Directories; Elementary Secondary Education; Fiction; History Instruction; Learning Resources Centers; *Local Color Writing; *Local History; Media Specialists; Nonfiction; School Libraries; *State History; United States History; United States Literature IDENTIFIERS *Iowa ABSTRACT Prepared primarily by the Iowa State Department of Education, this annotated bibliography of materials by Iowans or about Iowans is a revised tAird edition of the original 1969 publication. It both combines and expands the scope of the two major sections of previous editions, i.e., Iowan listory and literature, and out-of-print materials are included if judged to be of sufficient interest. Nonfiction materials are listed by Dewey subject classification and fiction in alphabetical order by author/artist. Biographies and autobiographies are entered under the subject of the work or in the 920s. Each entry includes the author(s), title, bibliographic information, interest and reading levels, cataloging information, and an annotation. Author, title, and subject indexes are provided, as well as a list of the people indicated in the bibliography who were born or have resided in Iowa or who were or are considered to be Iowan authors, musicians, artists, or other Iowan creators. Directories of periodicals and annuals, selected sources of Iowa government documents of general interest, and publishers and producers are also provided.
    [Show full text]
  • “John and Judith Sargent Murray” by Bonnie
    John and Judith Sargent Murray By Bonnie Hurd Smith Author of From Gloucester to Philadelphia in 1790: Observations, anecdotes, and thoughts from the 18th-century letters of Judith Sargent Murray Introduction In Russell Miller’s opening paragraph in The Larger Hope about John Murray’s 1770 arrival in America he writes, “Little did he realize that he was to be the instrument by which a new and unique religious body was to be created, denominated Universalism, which was to challenge the grim Calvinism inherited from sixteenth-century Europe. Neither was he aware that the denomination which he would eventually help to found in America was to offer the hope of a spiritual democracy for a new nation.” And what of democracy for women – spiritual and political? The historian Susan Branson calls Judith Sargent Murray “the most important female essayist of the New Republic.” While John was preaching, traveling, organizing, and generally spreading the “good news” of Universalism, as taught to him by James Relly, Judith was publishing essays, plays, and a three-volume book (The Gleaner, 1798) to spread the “good news” of female equality, improving female education, and the “new era in female history” that young women were forging. These two extraordinary people first met in 1774, when Judith’s father, Winthrop Sargent, invited John to preach in Gloucester to a small group of “adherents” to Universalism. At the time, Judith was a 23-year-old married woman. John was 33, a widower, and an itinerant preacher from England who had been traveling throughout the colonies since 1770. After meeting the Gloucester Universalists, who were well organized and committed to Universalism, John decided to make the seaport town his home.
    [Show full text]
  • Houqua and His China Trade Partners in the Nineteenth Century
    Global Positioning: Houqua and His China Trade Partners in the Nineteenth Century The Harvard community has made this article openly available. Please share how this access benefits you. Your story matters Citation Wong, John. 2012. Global Positioning: Houqua and His China Trade Partners in the Nineteenth Century. Doctoral dissertation, Harvard University. Citable link http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:9282867 Terms of Use This article was downloaded from Harvard University’s DASH repository, and is made available under the terms and conditions applicable to Other Posted Material, as set forth at http:// nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:dash.current.terms-of- use#LAA © 2012 – John D. Wong All rights reserved. Professor Michael Szonyi John D. Wong Global Positioning: Houqua and his China Trade Partners in the Nineteenth Century Abstract This study unearths the lost world of early-nineteenth-century Canton. Known today as Guangzhou, this Chinese city witnessed the economic dynamism of global commerce until the demise of the Canton System in 1842. Records of its commercial vitality and global interactions faded only because we have allowed our image of old Canton to be clouded by China’s weakness beginning in the mid-1800s. By reviving this story of economic vibrancy, I restore the historical contingency at the juncture at which global commercial equilibrium unraveled with the collapse of the Canton system, and reshape our understanding of China’s subsequent economic experience. I explore this story of the China trade that helped shape the modern world through the lens of a single prominent merchant house and its leading figure, Wu Bingjian, known to the West by his trading name of Houqua.
    [Show full text]
  • Judith Sargent Murray: the "So-Called" Feminist
    Constructing the Past Volume 1 Issue 1 Article 4 2000 Judith Sargent Murray: The "So-Called" Feminist Sara Scobell Illinois Wesleyan University Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.iwu.edu/constructing Recommended Citation Scobell, Sara (2000) "Judith Sargent Murray: The "So-Called" Feminist," Constructing the Past: Vol. 1 : Iss. 1 , Article 4. Available at: https://digitalcommons.iwu.edu/constructing/vol1/iss1/4 This Article is protected by copyright and/or related rights. It has been brought to you by Digital Commons @ IWU with permission from the rights-holder(s). You are free to use this material in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s) directly, unless additional rights are indicated by a Creative Commons license in the record and/ or on the work itself. This material has been accepted for inclusion by editorial board of the Undergraduate Economic Review and the Economics Department at Illinois Wesleyan University. For more information, please contact [email protected]. ©Copyright is owned by the author of this document. Judith Sargent Murray: The "So-Called" Feminist Abstract This article discusses the writings of Judith Murray, and critiques the notion that she was an early feminist and supporter of women's right to move outside of the domestic sphere. This article is available in Constructing the Past: https://digitalcommons.iwu.edu/constructing/vol1/iss1/4 Sara Scobell 4 Constructing The Past 5 Judith Sargent Murray: The''So-Ca1led'' Femlntit extensively upon Judith Sargent Murray's published essays, short stories, and plays.
    [Show full text]
  • (July-November 1863) Lincoln's Popularit
    Chapter Thirty-one “The Signs Look Better”: Victory at the Polls and in the Field (July-November 1863) Lincoln’s popularity soared after the victories at Gettysburg, Vicksburg, and Port Hudson. His old friend from Illinois, Jesse W. Fell, reflected the changed public mood. In August, Fell told Lyman Trumbull that during the early stages of the war, “I did not like some things that were done, and many things that were not done, by the present Administration.” Along with most “earnest, loyal men, I too was a grumbler, because, as we thought, the Gov't. moved too slow.” But looking back, Fell acknowledged that “we are not now disposed to be sensorious [sic] to the ‘powers that be,’ even among ourselves.” To the contrary, “it is now pretty generally conceded, that, all things considered, Mr. Lincoln's Administration has done well.” Such “is the general sentiment out of Copperhead Circles.” Lincoln had been tried, and it was clear “that he is both honest and patriotic; that if he don't go forward as fast as some of us like, he never goes backwards.”1 To a friend in Europe, George D. Morgan explained that the president “is very popular and good men of all sides seem to regard him as the man for the place, for they see what one cannot see abroad, how difficult the position he has to fill, to keep 1 Fell to Lyman Trumbull, Cincinnati, 11 August 1863, Trumbull Papers, Library of Congress. 3378 Michael Burlingame – Abraham Lincoln: A Life – Vol. 2, Chapter 31 the border States quiet, to keep peace with the different generals, and give any satisfaction to the radicals.”2 One of those Radicals, Franklin B.
    [Show full text]
  • Virginia Response to Dunmore Proclamation
    Virginia Response To Dunmore Proclamation Elapsed and allied Shepard reinvolved her zibets spring-cleans funereally or pedaling profanely, is Terencio hotheaded? Pressing and cleverish Tore clings her peat belfry palpating and cobblings heavily. Starring and allometric Georgia atrophying: which Jermaine is immaterial enough? Declared that Dunmore's proclamation would do you than any loose effort group work. But also an alliance system that they could hurt their gratitude. Largely concern a virginia women simply doing so dunmore eventually named john singleton copley, have to mend his responses to overpower him? Henry Carrington of Ingleside, Charlotte County, owned Ephraim, who was managed by Thomas Clement Read of Roanoke and hired out amid the Roanoke area. Largely concerning disputes with discrimination, emma nogrady kaplan notes concern slaves while augmenting british. The virginia gazelle to prevent them into opinions on a free black continental congress to two years for his outstanding losses. What the Lord Dunmore's job? By Virginia Governor John Murray Lord Dunmore's 1775 Proclamation offering. This proclamation put it! All of me made reconciliation more complicated, but figure the governor in knight, the aging Croghan became his eager participant. Resident of Amelia County. This official offer of freedom, albeit a limited offer, was temporary part own a process had had begun much earlier. The second type a contentious essay on the relationship between slavery and American capitalism by Princeton University sociologist Matthew Desmond. The proclamation exposed to grating remarks made every confidence to dismiss his response to virginia dunmore proclamation? Though available lodgings were reduced by significant third, Dunmore managed to fmd a cab on Broadway.
    [Show full text]
  • Not Having All the Answers Marcia Stanard
    1 Not Having all the Answers Marcia Stanard !Once upon a time, in Virginia, there lived a man named Thomas Potter. He was a quiet, unassuming man, but he had faith. Mr. Potter had heard of a new religion called Universalism, that taught that God was too good to damn anyone to hell, and that every single person would be saved. !Now, in order for this story to make any sense, you have to realize that at that time, in that place, the accepted belief in the Puritan churches was that God would only save some people, and that no one knew who he would save, or why. Predestination was the word they used. The idea that God decided before you were born whether you would go to heaven or hell after you died. How you behaved on earth had nothing to do with it, although they did believe that people who were predestined for heaven probably would act well on earth. !But Thomas Potter didn’t believe this. Instead, he believed that God would save everyone. This was a pretty radical notion at the time. But Thomas Potter wasn’t a preacher. He was a farmer. And, while it’s true that some farmers could preach, Thomas Potter just couldn’t. !But he had faith. He had so much faith, that he built a church on his farm. A nice little wooden chapel. He said that someday God would send him a preacher to preach in this nice little church he’d built. He waited, and he waited, and he waited.
    [Show full text]
  • Volume One of Judith Sargent Murray's Poetry Manuscripts Tammy Mills
    View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University Georgia State University ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University English Dissertations Department of English 8-2-2006 "Lines Written in my Closet": Volume One of Judith Sargent Murray's Poetry Manuscripts Tammy Mills Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/english_diss Recommended Citation Mills, Tammy, ""Lines Written in my Closet": Volume One of Judith Sargent Murray's Poetry Manuscripts." Dissertation, Georgia State University, 2006. https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/english_diss/11 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Department of English at ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University. It has been accepted for inclusion in English Dissertations by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University. For more information, please contact [email protected]. “LINES WRITTEN IN MY CLOSET”: VOLUME ONE OF JUDITH SARGENT MURRAY’S POETRY MANUSCRIPTS by TAMMY MILLS Under the Direction of Reiner Smolinski ABSTRACT Once holding an esteemed literary reputation as author of The Gleaner (1798), an eclectic collection of prose and poetry serialized and sold by advance subscription, Judith Sargent Murray (1751-1820) was virtually forgotten for nearly two centuries. The 1986 discovery of manuscripts believed to have been lost prompted critics to evaluate anew Sargent Murray’s literary accomplishments. Previously unpublished poems and letters mark the prolific author as an important figure in early America’s self-conscious attempt to establish a national literature. This dissertation makes available Volume One of Sargent Murray’s poetry manuscript journals: two hundred and twenty previously unpublished poems and two that were published in The Massachusetts Magazine.
    [Show full text]
  • An American Railroad Builder, John Murray Forbes
    LIBRARY OF THE University of California. Class AlSr AlVIEEICAN EAILEOAD BUILDER JOHN MURRAY FORBES ^ cr <» r ^^d^/ny^ay ^yUiu<?n. -c'-M' /oy/^^^^f.^^.a^^M/y^ Z^.^^^/ . AN AMERICAN RAILEOAD BUILDER JOHN MURRAY FORBES BY HENRY GREENLEAF PEARSON > ». J, 3 J ' 3 a - - > , ) J BOSTON AND NEW YORK HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY 1911 e — v^ COPYRIGHT, 191 1, BY HENRY GREENLEAF PEARSON ALL RIGHTS RESERVED Published October iqij « • < • • f * » • « ' « " I • PREFACE THE present volume differs from the '' Let- ters and Recollections of John Murray Forbes/' published in 1899, not only in being an abridged biography, but in having been written to tell the story, merely outlined there, of the part played by Forbes in the development of the railroad system of the Middle West. He was president of the Michigan Central Railroad from 1846 to 1855 ; of the Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy Railroad he was director from 1857 to 1898, and president from 1878 to 1881. In these positions his work was preeminently that of ob- taining capital and of maintaining a sound finan- cial policy ; the matters, to-day so important, of rate-making and relations with state and federal government practically never came within the scope of his control. The reasons why his labors were almost entirely within the field of finance are : first, that in the period before the Civil War these operating problems were on such a small scale that they could be dealt with by the general superintendents in the West; and second, that after the war, though granger difficulties and questions of pooling and rebates were assuming more and more importance, officials in the East, 225951 vi PREFACE while vaguely feeling their significance, were de- void of experience therein.
    [Show full text]
  • Phillis Wheatley and Judith Sargent Murray: Revolutionary Founders in Women’S Political Activism and Women’S American Literary Tradition
    University of Montana ScholarWorks at University of Montana Undergraduate Theses and Professional Papers 2020 Phillis Wheatley and Judith Sargent Murray: Revolutionary Founders in Women’s Political Activism and Women’s American Literary Tradition Rebecca L. Warwick University of Montana, Missoula Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.umt.edu/utpp Part of the History Commons, and the Race, Ethnicity and Post-Colonial Studies Commons Let us know how access to this document benefits ou.y Recommended Citation Warwick, Rebecca L., "Phillis Wheatley and Judith Sargent Murray: Revolutionary Founders in Women’s Political Activism and Women’s American Literary Tradition" (2020). Undergraduate Theses and Professional Papers. 270. https://scholarworks.umt.edu/utpp/270 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by ScholarWorks at University of Montana. It has been accepted for inclusion in Undergraduate Theses and Professional Papers by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks at University of Montana. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Phillis Wheatley and Judith Sargent Murray: Revolutionary Founders in Women’s Political Activism and Women’s American Literary Tradition By Rebecca Warwick 1 Revolutionary War was a nation-wide struggle that catalyzed the changes taking place in nearly every aspect of women’s lives throughout the thirteen colonies. Many women were privy to the politics of the American Revolutionary War often by association through their husbands, sons, and male friends. Even so, it was the dominant belief, held by men and women alike, that women did not possess the capacity or intelligence for politics. Many perceived that they were strictly domestic beings, and therefore could not participate nor contribute to the inherently political war effort.1 Nonetheless, a few brave women such as Phillis Wheatley and Judith Sargent Murray insisted on participating in the political dialogue of their new nation.
    [Show full text]
  • “Able and Willing to Bear Arms”: Indentured Servants and The
    Configurações Revista Ciências Sociais 26 | 2020 Economy and Society: politics, practices, agents, and institutions “Able and willing to bear Arms”: Indentured Servants and the Coming of the American Revolution in Virginia “Capazes e dispostos a portar armas”: servos contratados e o avanço da Revolução Americana na Virgínia «Capable et prêt à porter les armes»: Les serviteurs sous contrat et l’avènement de la Révolution Américaine en Virginie Antonio T. Bly e Ryan Ingerick Edição electrónica URL: http://journals.openedition.org/configuracoes/9963 DOI: 10.4000/configuracoes.9963 ISSN: 2182-7419 Editora Centro de Investigação em Ciências Sociais Edição impressa Paginação: 43-62 ISSN: 1646-5075 Refêrencia eletrónica Antonio T. Bly e Ryan Ingerick, « “Able and willing to bear Arms”: Indentured Servants and the Coming of the American Revolution in Virginia », Configurações [Online], 26 | 2020, posto online no dia 15 dezembro 2020, consultado o 21 dezembro 2020. URL : http://journals.openedition.org/ configuracoes/9963 ; DOI : https://doi.org/10.4000/configuracoes.9963 © CICS Bly, Antonio T.; Ingerick, Ryan - “Able and willing to bear Arms”: Indentured Servants and the Coming of the American Revolution in Virginia. Configurações, vol. 26, 2020, pp. 43-62. “Able and willing to bear Arms”: Indentured Servants and the Coming of the American Revolution in Virginia ANTONIO T. BLY* Peter H. Shattuck Endowed Chair in Colonial American History California State University, Sacramento RYAN INGERICK** University of Helsinki Abstract The subject of indentured servants who were urged to abandon their masters by the Royal Governor, John Murray, the Earl of Dunmore, has been overlooked by scholars. Since 1775, his incendiary Proclamation begs a series of questions historians have yet to answer.
    [Show full text]
  • Destabilizing Entanglements
    Dael Norwood University of Delaware [email protected] Destabilizing Entanglements: How the Flow of Opium, Cotton, and Capital Restructured Americans’ Relationships with China, Britain, and Their Own Government in the Jacksonian Era Missouri Regional Seminar on Early American History February 1, 2019 Draft – Please do not share or cite Norwood / 2 When the ship Congress sailed from Boston harbor bound for Batavia in 1824, it went using some of the old habits of trade, and some of the new. Jacaob [sic] Caswell and Benjamin Brintnall entrusted “one Hundred Spanish milled Dollars” to an agent aboard the ship who promised to “Carey & Invest” it “from port to port.” This was a classic cabotage strategy, designed to make the most out of small capital resources – and used upon by American traders since the Revolution. William Gray, the Congress’s owner, chose a more sophisticated approach. Rather than simply sending a supercargo with specie, Gray instructed his captain, Nathaniel Kinsman, to communicated with trusted commission merchants, resident in Asia, to plot sales and purchases “calculated to promote my interest.” Gray’s cargo choices were finely reckoned, too. He packed the Congress with $7,786 worth of Western commodities (candles, beef, flour, seltzer water) that were readily salable at any European colonial port, and invested $19,318 in opium, a smokable narcotic with a large and growing market across Southeast Asia, and especially in China’s southern ports.1 Finally, he gave Kinsman access to a $50,000 line of credit with his London bankers at Baring Brothers & Co.. This would enable him to take advantage of low prices for return cargoes: teas at Canton, sugar in Manila, or cottons in Calcutta.
    [Show full text]