Joseph Plumb Martin and the American Imagination
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© 2011 PETER MANOS ALL RIGHTS RESERVED JOSEPH PLUMB MARTIN AND THE AMERICAN IMAGINATION A Dissertation Presented to The Graduate Faculty of The University of Akron In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy Peter Manos December, 2011 JOSEPH PLUMB MARTIN AND THE AMERICAN IMAGINATION Peter Manos Dissertation Approved: Accepted: _____________________________ ________________________________ Advisor Department Chair Dr. Elizabeth Mancke Dr. Michael Sheng _____________________________ ________________________________ Co-Advisor/ Committee Member Dean of the College Dr. Walter Hixson Dr. Chand Midha ______________________________ ________________________________ Committee Member Dean of the Graduate School Dr. Kevin Kern Dr. George Newkome _____________________________ ________________________________ Committee Member Date Dr. Kevin Adams _____________________________ Committee Member Dr. Patrick Chura ii ABSTRACT The personal narrative of ordinary Continental Army private Joseph Plumb Martin has long provided corroborating evidence for battlefield accounts of the American Revolution and has never been out of print, albeit usually in abridged form, since its discovery in the mid-twentieth century. Yet, the memoir was written in 1830, fifty years after the events Martin narrated. Its romantic literary style, its populist sensibility, its racism, its empiricism, all reflect nineteenth-century values. The memoir has value in epitomizing the solidification of American nationalism and the populist rhetoric that became associated with it. Chapter one attempts to understand Martin’s rhetoric in terms of the literary influences on his writing, which include some works of the nineteenth century, but most from earlier times. Particularly evident is a modeling of behavior and outlook on the popular “Jonathan” character emerging from the works of post-Revolutionary American playwright Royall Tyler and others coupled with the romantic low-born outdoorsmen protagonists of nineteenth century rural poet Robert Bloomfield. Chapter two argues that Martin’s populism and distrust of authority which positions him in the Jacksonian era, had experiential roots in his years of service during the Revolution, particularly with regard to the relationship between the rank and file and their commanders: a contractual, negotiated environment based on competency and personal liberty. iii Chapter three demonstrates the racism that influenced Martin’s narrative and which stemmed from a growing antagonism between white and African-American laborers in the nineteenth century which rationalized white supremacy through the concept of competence. Chapter four discusses Martin’s and by extension the early republic’s view of the practice of medicine in context of competence and the rise of anti-intellectual empiricism in the creation of knowledge, with a focus on the medical advances of Martin’s lifetime. Chapter five presents a behavioral view of a Revolutionary War veteran who has imposed a nineteenth century populist sensibility on the meaning behind his service in the Continental Army. This is a dramatic recreation of Martin’s testimony before county officials in petition for a veteran’s pension offered in 1828. It is hoped that this work will help create an understanding of how certain anti- authoritarian individualistic ideas realized in the early nineteenth century acted upon interpretations of the meaning behind the American War of Independence and American nationalism, a meaning that has colored our understanding of the nation’s founding and has influenced ideas of what it means to be an American. iv DEDICATION To my wife, Sandra Manos, “My Dearest Friend.” v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I first would like to thank the wonderful people at the Western Reserve Historical Society Library who let me spend so many hours with their copy of the original publication of Martin’s narrative. Their patience and good humor were much appreciated. I am especially indebted to the gifted history faculty at the University of Akron whose wisdom, dedication and passion inspire all they come in contact with. To Dr. Walter Hixson, who taught me (often unwillingly) to think outside the box when it came to historical study and the delivery of historical insight. To Dr. Zachery Williams whose capacity for joy in the study of the human condition through history is bright and infectious. To Dr. Shelley Baranowski for her brilliant dissections of the most wonderful, most terrible history of all, that of twentieth century Germany. To Dr. Kevin Kern who made Ohio history an endless journey of riches. To Dr. Gregory Wilson for demonstrating the power of recent American history seen through the prism of environmentalism. To Dr. Martin Wainwright for his three-ring circus of cricket, movies, and the Raj. To Dr. Lesley Gordon, furiously intelligent guide to the four most fascinating years in American history- 1861-1865. To Dr. T.J. Boisseau for her hard work, discipline and refusal to settle for less than one’s best work. And to Dr. Elizabeth Mancke, who brings a level of clarity and grace to historical investigation that one can only aspire to emulate. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Page CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION: “FANFARE FOR THE COMMON MAN”....………....................1 II. MARC ANTONY MEETS GILES: TOWARD A DEMOCRATIC RHETORIC THROUGH HUMILITY IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC.....………………....................28 III. FROM BROOMSTICK TO OLD HICKORY: THE NEW NATURE OF AUTHORITY IN THE RECOLLECTIONS OF AN OLD REVOLUTIONARY…..…87 IV. “POOR CUFF LAID FLAT ON HIS BACK”: THE UTILITARIANISM OF RACE IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC IMPOSED ON THE REVOLUTION………..……….145 V. “SMALL CAUSES” AND “GREAT EFFECTS”: SCIENCE, MEDICINE, AND THE CREATION OF KNOWLEDGE IN AN EMPIRIC EMPIRE OF LIBERTY……..…182 VI. PLUMB (A ONE CHARACTER PLAY)……………...........................................230 VII. CONCLUSION: “HAVE THE PATIENCE JUST TO HEAR ME OUT”……….274 BIBLIOGRAPHY………………………………............................................................283 vii CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION: FANFARE FOR THE COMMON MAN In 1830, as Americans looked back at a half century of existence, they found meaning in the changes that were happening around them in the narratives they made of the American Revolution. In the years from independence to the ascension of Andrew Jackson to the White House (1829), increased social and economic mobility brought a political voice to America’s underclass and with it an anti-elitist rhetoric that shaped a meaning of democracy that was not necessarily envisioned by the original founding fathers. Thus, new heroes emerged and traditional heroes’ biographies altered to accentuate the concept that the American Revolution was a common effort by ordinary Americans that succeeded because of national consensus built upon moral integrity and competence.1 The spotlight fell on ordinary soldiers and leaders from humble backgrounds or with characteristics that appealed to ordinary citizens. A published narrative of war time experiences, penned with ostensible but in reality calculated artlessness, by an ordinary soldier of Washington’s Continental Army, reflected the populist mood of the 1830s even as it purported to give an immediate eye-witness account to the American Revolution. 1 Ex-Continental Army private Joseph Plumb Martin’s life spanned both the Revolutionary War period and the first half of the nineteenth century. He published his remembrances of the war, anonymously, in 1830, under the cumbersome title A Narrative of Some of the Adventures, Dangers and Sufferings of a Revolutionary Soldier; Interspersed with Anecdotes of Incidents that Occurred Within his Own Observation Written by Himself. Martin was seventy years of age in 1830 and was by his own admission a farm laborer, but also had held posts as justice of the peace and selectman in the seaside community of Prospect (now Stockton Springs) in the decade-old state of Maine.2 Born in 1760 in Massachusetts, Martin was fifteen when he ran away from his grandsire’s farm near New Haven, Connecticut to serve in the Connecticut militia in 1776. He was a soldier in the militia and then in the newly formed Continental Army until 1783 and his narrative provided eyewitness accounts of numerous battles including Long Island, White Plains, Fort Mifflin, Monmouth, and Yorktown. When first published, Martin’s narrative excited little notice except locally and to a mixed reception at that. A reviewer from Belfast, Maine opined half a century later: “It is to be regretted that before sending this book to the press he had not placed it in the hands of some judicious friend for revisal.”3 Historian James Kirby Martin concurs with this assessment: “Martin had a natural ability to express himself clearly in vigorous prose. What he needed was an editor to help him overcome his lack of training in the fundamental rules of grammar and punctuation. Apparently he did not have access to one.”4 Aesthetic and literary shortcomings notwithstanding, Joseph Plumb Martin’s narrative has been in print steadily, in many different incarnations, since 1962, when it was discovered by historian George Scheer. It has been liberally quoted in children’s 2 books and in documentaries as well as in standard histories of the War for Independence ever since.5 Martin’s narrative, since its rediscovery, has been used primarily as a source of corroborating evidence for various battlefield accounts of the war, giving a rare grunt’s eye-view of revolutionary war era combat and camp life a truthful, if perhaps artless, witness