PARODY AND PASTICHE IMAGES OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION IN POPULAR CULTURE, 1765-1820 DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for The Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Marianne Holdzkom, B.S., M.A. $ & & £ $ The Ohio State University 1995 Dissertation Committee: Approved by Randolph Roth Richard Shiels Advisor Saul Cornell Department of History UMI Number: 95339B9 Copyright 1995 by Holdzkom, Marianne All rights reserved. UMI Microform 9533989 Copyright 1995, by UMI Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. UMI 300 North Zeeb Road Ann Arbor, MI 48103 Copyright by Marianne Holdzkom 1995 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to take this opportunity to thank a few people for their help and support. Without them, my graduate career would not have been possible. I am grateful to Professor Randolph Roth who has offered me encouragement, insight, and guidance during my years at Ohio State as well as invaluable help on my dissertation. Professor Richard Shiels has been generous with his time and advice both in the classroom and on this project. 1 am grateful to him for his kind spirit and his wisdom. Thanks also to Professor Saul Cornell for his helpful insights and encouragement. To Helen Churella, I offer my thanks for assisting me with persistence and a sense of humor. In addition, I must thank Kevin Barnhard, Paul Pierpaoli, Bill Feis, Dixee Bartholomew-Feis, Jean Muirhead, Joyce Kutzavitch, and Janelle Runge for their friendship and support. I am deeply grateful to my parents whose love and support has been unfailing through the good and the bad. Finally, to my fiance, Albert Churella, I offer my thanks and love for his patience and assistance. VITA March 22, 1962........... Born, Terre Haute, Indiana 1984 B.S., University of Evansville, Evansville, Indiana 1988 ........................... M.A. , Bal 1 State University, Muncie, Indiana FIELDS OF STUDY Major Field: History Studies in: U.S. History to 1877, Dr. Randolph Roth History of Religion, Dr. Richard Shiels Women’s History, Dr. Claire Robertson TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ............................... ii VITA ............................................ iii INTRODUCTION .............. 1 CHAPTER PAGE I. PAINTED IMAGES ..................... 17 II. "THE PLAY’S THE THING" ........... 81 III. SINGING THE REVOLUTION ........... 144 CONCLUSION ................................. 239 BIBLIOGRAPHY ............................... 248 INTRODUCTION The American Revolution was a defining event in the history of the United States. Yet how do we interpret such an important milestone? John Adams struggled with the issue in his later life when he wrote to Jefferson, "What do we Mean by the Revolution? The War? That was no part of the Revolution. .The Revolution was in the Minds of the people and this was effected, from 1760 to 1775,. ." What is often excluded from this famous quotation is Adams’s assertion that his "Ideas may be peculiar, perhaps singular."* John Adams understood the complexities involved in interpreting the Revolution and invited scholars of his time to investigate "By what means this great and important alteration in the religious, moral, political, and social character of the people" took place.^ Scholars have answered Adams’s call for two centuries, attempting to understand the Revolution in a number of ways. Discerning the meaning of the American Revolution for those who were living at the time is a complicated 1 2 task. Yet historians find clues to this mystery by examining pamphlets, sermons, and other literary works. One valuable source that is often overlooked by historians of the Revolution is the arts. Painters, dramatists, and musicians contributed to the political debate as the rebellion of the American colonies became the Revolution. Yet as historians attempted to meet Adams’s challenge to discover the origins of the Revolution, the arts became secondary to political documents as a source of enlightenment. While the Revolution held a variety of meanings for those who were involved, the individuals born after the event were the first to begin interpreting the Revolution for their nation. Some historians, such as George Bancroft, believed the American Revolution was the climax of history. In the twentieth century, Carl Becker acknowledged the power of abstract ideas, as well as the reality of class struggle. Louis Hartz, in the 1950’s, and, more recently, John P. Diggins have stressed the influence of Lockean liberalism on Revolutionary leaders.^ Other historians have deemphasized the primacy of class struggle and liberalism. Instead they have focused on the centrality of an inherited republican 3 ideology in Revolutionary America. Between the 1960’s and 1980’s this republican synthesis school, developed by Bernard Bailyn, Gordon Wood, and J.G.A. Pocock, among others, became the locus of debate concerning Revolutionary motivations in the colonies.4 While the republican synthesis found many supporters, others, such as Gary Nash, Eric Foner, and Marvin L. Michael Kay, believed that deep-rooted social and religious tensions would not disappear with Independence. For these social historians, the idea of interpreting the Revolution solely on the basis of elite ideology was unacceptable.^ Like social historians, cultural historians have broadened the range of sources applicable to the study of the American Revolution by examining the rituals, literature, and icons of that period. Rhys Isaac, in researching his The Trans format ion...o.f.Virginia, 1.740- 1790, did not depend on the written record of his subjects. Instead, he examined the everyday customs and rituals of different people living in Virginia during this time. For Isaac, it was vital to "decipher important beliefs, values, and aspirations in a society where the religious institutions that had provided a focus for authority in the community were challenged 4 and ultimately overthrown." In studying the everyday lives of Virginians before and after the Revolution, Isaac found evidence of a number of rebellions against authority, struggles that were directed at the colonial elite rather than the British. He, like social historians, believed scholars spent far too much time concentrating on the upper classes. To understand the Revolution in Virginia, Isaac wished "to enter more deeply into the world of those whom historians have arrogantly called 'the inarticulate.’" For Rhys Isaac it was not enough to study the written pamphlets of the elite in order to understand the changes taking place in the late eighteenth century. By examining old problems in a new way, Isaac found anything but unity in Virginian society.^ Other historians have examined the arts in the colonies at the time of the American Revolution. Ken Silverman wrote an exhaustive study of American culture as it appeared between 1763 and 1783. He believed the budding of culture in this country is an important development that has been overshadowed by the revolution. According to Silverman, the two events went hand in hand. As Americans were fighting for 5 their political independence, they were also discovering the value of their own artistic works.^ Other cultural historians have discerned the importance of literary works in understanding the meaning of the American Revolution. By concentrating on what authors have written, these historians find evidence to support political and social historians. Yet they also find new sources for the American struggle and are able to examine how history itself has changed the meaning of the Revolution through time. Jay Fliegelman, in his work Prodigals and Pilgrims: The American Revolution against Patriarchal Authority, 1750-1800, expressed a tinge of boredom with the old republican/liberal debate over the Revolution. He believes it is necessary to understand "the larger cultural context of the American Revolution." It is not enough to argue over who transmitted enlightenment ideas to America; we must also understand the idea of authority in the colonies and the best way to do that, according to Fliegelman, is to consider the relationship between literary culture and the Revolution. The root of the revolution for Fliegelman is the question of authority and the effect this precept had on the people of the colonies. It was patriarchal authority that the colonists were rebelling against and that rebellion took place in novels and other literary works.® In his latest work, Fliegelman examined the change in American language and persuasion at the time of the Revolution. Rather than concentrating on the substance of the Declaration of Independence, Fliegleman studied the pauses that Jefferson incorporated into the work. He argued that the Declaration was "written to be read aloud" and this fact is important in interpreting the meaning of the document.9 Another slant on the American Revolution comes from the work of Michael Kammen. In his piece on the American Revolution, Kammen concerned himself with the traditions of America. He did not dwell on the motivations of the participants in the rebellion. Instead he attempted to understand the meaning of the Revolution by comprehending its significance throughout American history. Kammen argued that the Revolution has had many faces. In the early years of the nation, the revolution was a good thing which brought prosperity and progress through a radical upheaval. After the terror of the Russian Revolution, however,