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Xerox University Microfilms 300 North Zaeb Road Ann Arbor, Michigan 48100 WILLIAMS, Arthur Wallace Toby, 1932- DEMOCRACY IN COLONIAL AMERICA: A STUDY WITH PARTICULAR REFERENCE TO ITS TREATMENT IN HISTORIOGRAPHIC SOURCE MATERIALS, AND TO ITS EDUCATIONAL IMPLICATIONS. Middle Tennessee State University, D.A., 1975 History, general Xerox University MicrofilmsAnn , Arbor, Michigan 48106 © 1975 ARTHUR WALLACE TOBY WILLIAMS ALL RIGHTS RESERVED THIS DISSERTATION HAS BEEN MICROFILMED EXACTLY AS RECEIVED. DEMOCRACY IN COLONIAL AMERICA: A STUDY WITH PARTICULAR REFERENCE TO ITS TREATMENT IN HISTORIOGRAPHIC SOURCE MATERIALS, AND TO ITS EDUCATIONAL IMPLICATIONS Arthur Wallace Toby Williams A Dissertation presented to the Graduate Faculty of Middle Tennessee State University in partial fulfillments of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Arts August, 1975 DEMOCRACY IN COLONIAL AMERICA: A STUDY WITH PARTICULAR REFERENCE TO ITS TREATMENT IN HISTORIOGRAPHIC SOURCE MATERIALS, AND TO ITS EDUCATIONAL IMPLICATIONS APPROVED: Graduate Committee: Minor Minor Professor, Higher Education Minor Professor, Political Science Dean of the Graduate School ABSTRACT DEMOCRACY IN COLONIAL AMERICA: A STUDY WITH PARTICULAR REFERENCE TO ITS TREATMENT IN HISTORIOGRAPHIC SOURCE MATERIALS, AND TO ITS EDUCATIONAL IMPLICATIONS by Arthur Wallace Toby Williams The study addresses Itself to certain basic education­ al problems occasioned by the increased interest in the nature of American democracy and especially in its roots in colonial America. Specifically, the study is concerned with the nature of the treatment of the theme and concepts of democracy in co­ lonial America in high school and college textbooks. Also of concern is the interrelationships between treatment of colo­ nial democracy in primary and secondary sources and its treat­ ment in various schools of historical interpretation in the wider academic historical literature. The study proceeded from an abstract definition of democracy to operational definitions and examples of prac­ tical democracy. A study of colonial American source materials concerning democracy was made followed by a critical review of a representative range of historical lit­ erature. Finally a detailed critical analysis was made of, respectively, seven high school and five college texts offi­ cially adopted for use in the State of Tennessee. Arthur Wallace Toby Williams The basic findings of the study were that democracy was practiced in colonial America; that there was a differen­ tiation in the treatment of democracy in colonial America in the texts examined, both in terms of coverage given and in actual treatment of the topic; that there were linkages be­ tween the nature of that coverage and the five schools of historical interpretation discerned from a survey of the lit­ erature, although such links were tenuous rather than explicit that there was little differentiation between the high school and college texts examined; that there was room for substan­ tial improvement in the treatment of the topic of democracy in colonial America. The study concluded with recommendations for further research and for possible changes in the teaching of the topic of democracy in colonial America in the light of the findings of the dissertation, with particular reference to the teaching of college survey courses in American history. In the main, the recommendations that concluded the study centered on the need to reassess the entire subject of the teaching of democracy at both the high school and college levels. Contemporary student and educational needs were cited as indicating the appropriateness of expanding and improving textbook treatments of the nation’s democratic beginnings, particularly with reference to the earliest years of the co­ lonial period. Broad textbook coverage was recommended as a concomitant to introduction of a more critical approach based Arthur Wallace Toby Williams in sensitivity of the people of the colonial period, and to the differing views of historians. Fuller treatment that might lead to deeper understanding of colonial democracy was seen as especially appropriate in texts prepared for the use of college students. CONTENTS Chapter Page I. INTRODUCTION 1 Statement of the Problem Purpose of the Study Need for the Study Scope of the Study Definitions II. A SURVEY OF EIGHTEENTH CENTURY CONCEPTS OF DEMOCRACY........................................... 23 III. A SURVEY OF HISTORICAL LITERATURE CONCERNING EIGHTEENTH CENTURY CONCEPTS OF DEMOCRACY......... 48 Historical Interpretations The Whig School The Imperial School The School of Progressive and Economic Determinists The School of Mid-Century Neo-Conservatism Varying Interpretations and the Question of Democracy in Colonial America IV. THE HIGH SCHOOL TEXTS: A CRITICAL ANALYSIS. 78 Bailey: The American Pageant Feder: Viewpoints, USA Frost and Associates: A History of the United States Graff and Krout: The Adventures of the American People Kownslar and Frizzel: Discovering American History Wade, Wilder, and Wade: A History of the United States Williams and Wolf: Our American Nation Findings: A Preliminary Overview V. THE COLLEGE TEXTS: A CRITICAL ANALYSIS.......... 115 Blum and Associates: The National Experience Current, Williams, and Freidel: American History: A Survey ii Garraty: The American Nation Gruver: An American History Findings: A Preliminary Overview VI. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS.................. 140 Conclusions Recommendations BIBLIOGRAPHY.................................................. 154 iii CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION To use the word democracy is to raise, but not, I think to solve a problem of definition . the discussion has such a strong tendency to slide from what we do mean to what we ought to mean that for purposes of definition it seems to be applicable only in the broadest sense.1 J. R. Pole To paraphrase Ben Franklin's weather classic: everyone talks about democracy; no one ever does anything about it, or better, no one agrees what it means. Civ­ ilization was already old when democracy made its first notable appearance among the small city states of ancient Greece, where it flourished brilliantly for a brief cen­ tury or two and then disappeared. At about the same time something that might be called democracy appeared in Rome and other Italian cities. Even in Rome democracy did not survive the conquest of the world by the Roman Republic, except as a form of local administration in the cities of the empire. In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries cer­ tain favorably placed medieval cities enjoyed a measure of 1J. R. Pole, "Historians and the Problem of Early American Democracy," American Historical Review 6? (April 1962): 627. The emphasis Is in the original. 1 2 self-government, but In most Instances it was soon re­ placed by the dictatorship of military conquerors, the oligarchic control of a few families, or the encroaching power of autocratic kings. The oldest democracy of modern times is the Swiss Confederation, the next oldest is the Dutch Republic. In seventeenth century England, the most democratic group was the Levelers, and they were generally despised by the well born. The directors of the British Commonwealth appear to have been more theocratic than democratic and their intellectual kin in the colonies were notoriously undemocratic to non-church members. How demo­ cratic was the English Bill of Rights of 1689 and the philosophy of John Locke, which became so popular in the Atlantic Seaboard Colonies? Emphasis on the natural rights of life, liberty and property did promote the growth of democratic institutions but may have impeded the growth