Migration Period Art

By the end of the 6th century, the Western Roman Empire had been almost entirely replaced with small Germanic kingdoms of people, including the Visigoths, Angles, Saxons and the Huns that had migrated from Scandinavia and other points in Eastern Europe. These Kingdoms shared common traditional features but due to the nomadic nature of these people historically, they encountered many different cultures and ideas which presented itself in their artworks. An example of this is the purse cover found at Sutton Hoo. Constructed in gold and enamel using the animal style, the purse cover features a standing man between two facing animals. This figure first shows up in Mesopotamian art about 3,200 years earlier. Other facets of the ornamentation include interwoven patterns containing parts of fighting animals and interlacing bands of decoration. Migration Period art was mobile art with a utilitarian function, such as weapons, tools and jewelry to fit in with a nomadic existence. The art of the Germanic peoples is almost entirely personal adornment, portable, and taken to the grave where it would act as an offering to dead spirits for protection of the living as exemplified by archeological finds such as the ship burial at Sutton Hoo. No monumental architecture or sculpture of permanence has been found to contradict this finding. Furthermore, the objects found at Sutton Hoo are important because they demonstrate the exchange of designs and techniques through contact with different cultures encountered. These objects have relation to the art of the Germanic people, Scandinavian roots and make reference to Christianity. Some scholars have speculated about the crosses on the Sutton Hoo Clasps and silver bowls with crosses on them also indicate an awareness of the new religion. The portability, assimilated styles and durability of materials used in the art of the migration period clearly indicate its creators were migratory people.

A Charlotte Icon: The History of the Charlotte Mint

 

Shannon L

History 141

November 19, 2010

A Charlotte Icon: The History of the Charlotte Mint

 

    The Charlotte Mint has a rich history. The Mint Museum is connected to many "firsts" for Charlotte. The first gold in the United States was found here in our region, the first gold rush was soon to follow. The first branch of the United States Mint was erected here on West Trade Street uptown because of the gold rush and, the first art museum in North Carolina stands here as well. From its beginning as the first branch of the United States Mint to housing a diverse collection of art today, the Mint is an icon, woven into the fabric of Charlotte culture.

In the late 1700's a farmer's young son, Conrad Reid was fishing on his father's property in Little Meadow Creek. He spotted a large rock glittering in the water, picked it out and took it home. It sat in the home as a doorstop for a number of years before anyone noticed that it might have some value. Mr. Reid took the rock to a Concord silversmith who could not identify it. On an annual trip to Fayetteville John Reid came across a jeweler who was able to identify the rock immediately and asked him to leave it with him so he could flux it. When he returned, the unnamed jeweler showed him a bar of gold extracted from the rock that was about eight inches long. Mr. Reed, having no concept of the value of gold asked him for $3.50 for the bar, which the jeweler hurriedly paid him. The Jeweler really ended up with a gem. He was able to extract about $3,600.00 worth of gold from the Reid "doorstop." (Knapp, 1999 Revised)

Although gold fever did not really start for approximately 20 more years, this was the beginning of the first gold rush in the U.S. By the 1820's, farmers were panning for gold on their properties after a day's work in the fields and even purchasing and utilizing slave labor to mine creeks and the land with just about anything they could turn the earth with.

Mining for gold had become profitable enough that by 1830 Charlotte had a newspaper, The Miners' and Farmers' Journal, dedicated to it. Soon, the "out of towners" rolled in to get their piece of the pie (Kratt, 2009). According to Mary Kratt, Henry Bissell of New York purchased interest in two of the mines and applied some European mining techniques including the use of a stamp mill to remove the gold from the rock. This yielded much more gold than the surface mining that had been instituted up to this point (Kratt, 2009). It was the first stamp mill used in this country. Europeans started arriving after that. Count Chevalier Vincent Rivafinoli represented a London mining company and had the capital and knowledge to extract approximately 3,800 ounces of gold from Charlotte's Rudisill Mine in a 90-day period, an impressive amount. (Kratt, 2009)

Gold had to be transported to Philadelphia to be minted. This caused major headaches both because the coaches were under constant attack from criminals and because it was a treacherous, long haul for those transporting it. With the amount of gold being extracted in and around the Charlotte area, the need for a closer solution for minting arose. There were a few private mints including the Bechtler's, the first to mint gold coins in the State of North Carolina. The small town of Charlotte, about 2,000 people at the time, sent a proposition to congress to put a branch mint here. The Secretary of the Treasury and members of Congress opposed this idea, preferring that the first branch mint be located in a more desirable location like New Orleans or New York where there was access to a seaport (Kratt, 2009).

A committee was set up to review the logistics of locating a branch mint in Charlotte and in its findings, recommended the location. Of course, Charlotte also had friends in high places.

James K. Polk, the chair for the Ways and Means committee and Andrew Jackson, President of the United States both hailed from Mecklenburg County and probably exerted their influence in favor of the Charlotte location. The committee's recommendation for establishing a branch mint in Charlotte was approved on March 3, 1835 by a landslide vote of 24 to 19. Congress appropriated $50,000.00 for the mint, which was built on purchased land on West Trade Street, a few blocks from the center of town (Wilkinson, 1973).

William Strickland of Philadelphia was commissioned to design the Charlotte Branch. He was an acclaimed architect whose impressive résumé included Philadelphia's Masonic Hall, the Philadelphia Exchange and the State Capitol in Nashville, Tennessee. Strickland was well noted for several architectural styles but his talent shone in Greek revival style, in which the Mint was designed. He charged only $150.00 for the plans for the Charlotte Mint and while he did not oversee the construction, he was readily available for any necessary consultation on his plan (Wilkinson, 1973).

The Charlotte Mint's cornerstone included a horseshoe "Cast by George Washington's horse when the President visited old Charlottetown in 1791" according to Henrietta Wilkinson (Wilkinson, 1973). On January 8, 1836, the cornerstone of the Charlotte Mint was set. The Charlotte Branch Mint opened on December 4, 1837 and cost $29,700.00 to build (Morrill, 2006).

The Charlotte Mint never struck silver coinage. Gold coins in the denominations of $2.50 and $5.00, know as quarter eagles and half eagles respectively for the shielded eagle struck on the reverse side of the coin, were minted from 1938 to 1849. Between 1849 and $1.00 gold coins were minted as well. Today, although a rare find commanding a high price, you can still find Charlotte minted gold coins through dealers and collectors (Incorporated, 2004)

In 1844, tragedy struck. The mint caught fire and burned almost completely to the ground. Some things were saved but the coin presses were destroyed. N. C. Congressman Barringer asked congress to restore the mint and it agreed. The mint building was restored to its original plan, but to fireproof standards designed by Robert Mills, in April of 1846 and reopened for business (Wilkinson, 1973). However, no coins were minted out of Charlotte for the two years the mint was closed.

The succession of the southern states from the union began with Abraham Lincoln's election being the final blow to the south. As the states in the south began succeeding, Governor Ellis of N.C. ordered Colonel Bryce to Seize the United States Branch Mint in Charlotte in the name of North Carolina, which became the final state to succeed from the union on May 20, 1861. Henrietta Wilkinson states in her book that no additional deposits were made after this date. During the war years in Charlotte, the mint housed many different activities. It served as a headquarters for Confederate troops and office space for the Navy. It was also used as a United States military post and a hospital for Confederate soldiers (Bulletin of The Mint Museum of Art Charlotte N.C. , 1937). After the War, the Mint was reopened but never struck another coin (Wilkinson, 1973).

The Mint's next claim to fame was housing Thomas Edison's experiments on extracting gold with electricity in 1901 (Kratt, 2009). Edison believed that gold could be extracted from rock by running and electric current through it. He felt Charlotte's gold was the most beautiful but there was not a sufficient amount for the experiments he was trying to engage in and although he was fond of Charlotte, high real estate prices drove him back to New Jersey in 1903 (Wilkinson, 1973).

Despite its varied service to the community the Government ordered the Charlotte Mint closed for good in 1913 having struck $10,163,660 between its inception in 1837 and the outbreak of war in 1861 as gold supplies were reported to be diminishing and the majority of miners had moved West to California about 70 years earlier (Kratt, 2009) .

The Mint sat empty for four years between 1913 and 1917. It then hosted a myriad of tenants. It was used as a federal courthouse for a while and as a Red Cross headquarters. Maybe most importantly to the building throughout its history, it also served as a meeting place for the Charlotte Women's Club (Wilkinson, 1973). By 1932, the Federal building that housed the United State's Post Office began making plans for expansion, which would bring much-needed jobs while people were trying to recover from the Great Depression. For the old Mint building, this meant destruction. There was much turmoil surrounding the decision to raze the mint building to make way for the expansion of the federal building that also housed the Post Office. According to an article written in the Charlotte Observer on May 21, 1931, John W. Mclusky, an architect from Washington sent to assess the situation for expansion, would return to D.C. to present a report on how to best use the half a million dollar appropriation. While he offered no recommendation on the matter, Charlotteans knew that Washington would lose little sleep over razing the Mint building in favor of the new L shaped plan for the federal building (Charlotte Will Know Design of New Federal Building Soon, 1931). Citizens in Charlotte, especially members of the women's club, did not want the historic building destroyed to make way for the new. They wrote letters to federal officials expressing their opinions and began to organize with Ms. Julia Alexander, Charlotte's first female attorney, spearheading the campaign (Wilkinson, 1973). Mr. Mclusky put off his return to Washington "…For the specific purpose of gathering further information as to the sentiment concerning the removal of the Mint building." states an article in the Charlotte observer (Opponents of Razing of Mint Building Expect to Organize, 1931).

By 1933, it had been decided that the old Mint building would be torn down. Mrs. Mary Myers Dwelle, Chairperson for the art department for Charlotte's Women's Club, and J. Steere, a friend of Mary's and an executive for the Boy Scouts, got together and each invited a dozen people to a meeting to discuss what could possibly be done to save the old Mint. The fourteen people that attended the meeting set up by Dwelle and Steere formed the Mint Museum Society (Kratt, 2009). Each did his or her part to raise funds and save the Mint. Julia Alexander, Charlotte's first female attorney and local historian and Mary Ivie promoted sentiment for the old building in the community and rallied support (Wilkinson, 1973). They started fundraising campaigns, which was no small feat, especially since the economy was just coming out of a depression (Kratt, 2009).

Of all the persons organized to save the Mint, Mary Myers Dwelle, J. Steere, architect Martin Boyer, E.C. Griffith, and Dr. Rush Shull were instrumental in preserving the building.

Mary Myers Dwelle had taken carriage outings on Sundays with her father John Springs Myers the founder of Myers Park, where they travelled past the Mint Building. He instilled in her a love for the grand building that carried through to her adulthood (Claiborne, 1973). Her appreciation for the building and the nostalgia that surrounded it prompted her to lead the charge in saving the Mint. She called upon her connections in the community to take a stand and as Henrietta Wilkinson puts it "assist in a project requiring a diversity of talent (Wilkinson, 1973). Her passion for art was a catalyst for establishing the building as North Carolina's first art museum (Wilkinson, 1973). Mary herself was the impetus for the whole project.

Mr. Martin Boyer had made many sketches of the old Mint Building through the years. He even did full to scale measured drawings of it so if anything ever happened to it, it could be re-created. He offered to donate his time and architectural expertise in putting the rubble of the Mint building back together (Wilkinson, 1973).

Dr. Rush Shull was a prominent doctor in the community who had seen hard times during the depression and was forced, along with his wife Eula, to file bankruptcy. He was quite interested in radiology as a new technology in the late 1920's and joined the Radiological Society of North America in 1930. He was the first to discover that asbestos workers were developing fibroids in the lungs and published a paper on it (The Cliffside Historical Society, 2010).

He had attended the meeting in Mr. Steere's office and was appointed chair of ways and means (Wilkinson, 1973). He sent correspondence to NC Senator Reynolds and inquired as rather or not the members of the Mint Museum Society could have the rubble of the old Mint if they would pay to have it moved (Wilkinson, 1973). The Senator replied that they could have the old bricks, etc. but they would have to work a price for moving it with Mr. W.R. Hart, who had bought the materials earlier that day (Wilkinson, 1973).

Mrs. Dwelle and Dr. Shull met with Mr. Hart and he told them he would sell them the materials left for $1,500.00 and deposit them safely at a new site (Wilkinson, 1973). Times were tough in the '30's and there was really no way to get a hold of that kind of money. The project was put on hold until suitable funds could be secured. The Charlotte Women's Club met in February and were inspired by their guest speaker who plead with them to help preserve their heritage. By the end of the meeting, the women had raised $425.00 to save the Mint (Wilkinson, 1973). All in all $920.00 was raised to purchase the building materials from Mr. Hart, who ultimately accepted only $950.00 instead of the original $1,500 (Wilkinson, 1973).

The next order of business was to find a new location for reconstruction and find the money to have it rebuilt. E.C. Griffith was a contractor who had built the Eastover neighborhood. While looking for a suitable location, he donated a three-acre tract of land next to Eastover for the Museum to be reconstructed on. It seemed like a perfect location and the Mint Museum Society accepted his generous offer (Wilkinson, 1973).

In February of 1933, the building was razed with each brick carefully numbered by Martin Boyer and relocated to its new home (Wilkinson, 1973).

Over the next few years, various committees worked on raising enough money to put the Mint back together and realize their dream of opening the Mint Museum of Art on the site in Eastover. Mary Myers Dwelle and Dr. Rush Shull, upon falling short of their fundraising goal, went to the bank to make inquiry as to funding. Dr. Shull put up his new X-Ray machine for collateral and they received between $2,500 and $3,500 dollars according to two different sources (Wilkinson, 1973) (The Cliffside Historical Society, 2010). Tenaciously working on this project, Mary Myers Dwelle received a letter from the guest speaker that had rallied the women's club to raise the initial funds to purchase the building material. Ms. Mechlin sent Mary a letter telling her that under some of the New Deal public works programs created by President Roosevelt; it may be possible to secure some grant money for the mint so Mary Dwelle headed first off to Raleigh and then off to Washington D. C. to gather information (Wilkinson, 1973). With the help of Charles Gilmore in Mecklenburg County and Mrs. Thomas O'Berry in Raleigh, the Emergency Relief Administration agreed to fund the "Re-erection of old Mint Building, Eastover" with a budget of $46,725.00 and became Civil Works Administration Project # 33031 (Hanchett, 1998) (Wilkinson, 1973).

For almost five long years, the tenacity and dedication of a community to save part of their heritage and leave a legacy to those that would come after them was realized. After being chartered on 28, April 1933, the Mint Museum of Art at Charlotte was opened to the public on October 22, 1936 (Art N. C., 1961).

A Charlotte Observer article reports that one thousand invitations to the formal opening were sent out to various people in other cities as well as Charlotte. Mr. Charles W. Tillett Jr. served as MC and Mayor Ben Douglas accepted the dedication on behalf of the people of Charlotte. Dr. Frank Graham, president of the University of North Carolina at the time, was to give a speech on "The Art Museum as an Educational Factor." It also represents that many other guest speakers were to be present including Ms. Leila Mechlin of Washington D.C., advisory director to the museum and, one of the women who had helped make it all possible by inspiring the Charlotte Women's Club to save this piece of history on that fateful day in February of 1933 (Observer, 1936). Mrs. Mary Myers Dwelle had been elected President of the Museum in April of 1935.

The Golden Eagle on the front of the building was the symbol for the assayer and all gold struck was required to have the eagle or part of it stamped on them by law. Once the Mint was closed in 1913, the eagle remained over the door until it was in such bad condition that the custodian of the Mint was afraid it would fall and had it removed and put into an old building on the property (Wilkinson, 1973). When the mint was being torn down, it was relegated to the trash and "picked up by a man who cut and sold firewood for a living" according to Henrietta Wilkinson's book. A man by the name of Severs wanted it for a museum he ran of Mecklenburg county relics and S. B. Alexander wished to have it for the Sons and Daughters of the Revolution. It ended up being sold to Alexander who ultimately gave it to the Committee for Mint Reconstruction to return to its rightful place above the door on the Mint Building. It was reconstructed and re-gilded and the Alexanders gave it as a gift to the museum. The original eagle graced the building until 1971 when the head fell off it.

It was reconstructed out of poly-resin and fiberglass by a sculptor by the name of Richard Kinnard and Gilded by Zeke Foard of Sign Art Company as a donation. The new eagle was hung on July 9, 1972 (Wilkinson, 1973).

The first year the Museum was open, it was visited by over 26,000 people (Bulletin of The Mint Museum of Art Charlotte N.C. , 1937). People from all over came to see its exhibits both permanent and on loan from patrons and other museums. Again, Mary Dwelle and Leila Mechlin worked very hard to procure art from patrons and to attract travelling exhibits and borrow works from other museums. It should be noted that in the very first years of the opening of the Mint Museum, most of these people who were so unconditionally dedicated to making it what it is today were volunteers not paid for their time or paid very little. They did it because they believed in it and wanted to enrich the community. Mary Dwelle wrote to Samuel H. Kress a collector of Renaissance art and asked for a show for the grand opening but dates could not be worked out. He was however able to send "Madonna" by Francesco Granacci which is part of the permanent collection today (Art N. C., 1961). "The Golden Hour" was the first painting to be donated to the museum. It was done by a painter from the Hudson River School movement, an important art movement in early American history concerning landscape, called William Hart. It was the first of four given by Mary Myers Dwelle's cousin, Richard Springs and was donated in the memory of Eli Baxter Springs, a former Mayor of Charlotte (Mint Museum Of Art, 2006). A portrait of the city's namesake, Queen Charlotte, painted by Allan Ramsay was also given to the museum and was installed just in time for inaugural ceremonies to commence (Wilkinson, 1973). Mary Dwelle herself gifted the museum a fine piece of art. It is "Christ and the Samaritan Woman" painted in the mid 1600's by Italian artist Sisto Badalocchio famous for his frescoes in the style of Carvaggio (Art N. C., 1961). The catalogue of paintings was written by Leila Mechlin and included biographies of the artists (Wilkinson, 1973). The Mint Museum included in its list of services to the community; art classes for the young and old, a theatre guild, a symphonic assembly and lecturers (Wilkinson, 1973).

    Unfortunately, for the Mint, where it was situated caused the basement to flood on a regular basis and it was hard to control the climate in inside, a mandatory task when dealing with art. Funds were not available to install air conditioning until sometime in the 1950's. This caused the museum to miss acquiring some amazing works of art from the Samuel Kress Foundation in the late 1930's, they were sent to South Carolina instead (Wilkinson, 1973). In 1967, Mellanay Delhome came to charlotte from Chicago and instituted a large and impressive private collection of ceramics of which she was appointed curator. She agreed to come to Charlotte and donate her collection as long as a gallery was specifically built to contain the collection and money was raised. The new gallery was opened in September 1967 (Wilkinson, 1973).

    In the 1980's the Mint underwent expansion and renovation yet again. The Dalton Wing was added in 1985 tripling the space in the Mint and housed the donated collection of Harry and Mary Dalton (PSMG, Inc., 2004). The Carolina Arts website states that the addition of the Dalton Wing supplied the museum with galleries for the permanent collections, libraries, classrooms, storage and additional office space. The Dalton Wing faces Randolph Road and is now the main entrance.

In 1999, through funding from Bank of America, Hugh McColl and others, the Mint was able to open the center for Craft and Design. It was opened in the renovated Montaldo's Department Store on Tryon Street uptown. It had previously been a funeral home and a livery stable (history, 2010). The building was designed in 1953 by architect Louis Asbury (history, 2010). Since North Carolina has a rich tradition of craft, it housed collections in five different areas; ceramics, wood, metal, glass and fiber. It also focused on areas of design including architecture, furniture design and graphic design (Mint Museum Of Art, 2006). The Mint Museum of Craft and Design closed in February of 2007 to prepare to relocate to the museum's newest expansion.

On October 1, 2010, the Mint Museum of Charlotte opened a $56,000,000 facility designed by Machado and Silvetti Associates in Boston, MA. Clark Patterson Lee of Charlotte was the architect of record. The 145,000 square foot facility encompasses 24,000 square feet for Permanent Collection Galleries, 12,000 so for temporary exhibitions, 13,200 so for art storage, a 3,000 so museum shop, 6,648 so for education areas and 11,615 so for special events space (Art M. M., 2010). The current facility on Randolph measures 73,000 sf. The expansion allows for an excellent facility, which will attract world-class national and international exhibits. It is located at 500 South Tryon Street and is part of the Wells Fargo Cultural Campus, which also contains the Harvey B. Gantt Center for African-American Arts and Culture, The Knight Theatre, the Duke Energy Center and the Bechtler's Museum of Modern Art (Art M. M., 2010).

The Mint Uptown will house the contents of the Craft and Design museum as well as American Art, Contemporary Art and European Art. The Mint Randolph will house African Art, Art of the Ancient Americas, Asian Art, Ceramics, Coins and Currency, Decorative Arts, Historic Costume and Fashionable Dress, Native American Art and Spanish Colonial Art. The Mint Museum Randolph will continue to reinstall its collections through 2012 (Art M. M., 2010)

Due to a bit of good fortune during the first gold rush and the dedication and determination of a few Charlotteans who started a movement, the Charlotte Mint has been a steadfast Icon of our History and Culture for over 200 years. Through all of Charlotte's evolution, the Mint has been there. It remains a vital part of our history and we will leave it as our legacy for generations yet to come.

 

 

 

 

 

Works Cited

Art, M. M. (2010). Expansion Fact Sheet. Retrieved from http://www.mintmuseum.org/uploads/downloads/Expansion/Expansion_Fact_Sheet.pdf

Art, N. C. (1961, January Volume 4 No. 5). The Mint Museum of Art 1936-1961- 25th Anniversary. Calendar of ART Events .

Bulletin of The Mint Museum of Art Charlotte N.C. . (1937, November and December Volume 1 Number 2). Charlotte, NC: Mint Museum of Art.

Charlotte Will Know Design of New Federal Building Soon. (1931, May 21). The CHarlotte Observer , p. Section 1 Page 9.

Claiborne, J. (1973, November 10). Care Did It . The Charlotte Observer .

Hanchett, T. (1998). Sorting Out The New South City Race, Class and Urban Development in Charlotte 1875-1975. University of North Carolina Press.

history. (2010). Retrieved 2010, from Mint Museum: http://www.mintmuseum.org/about-the-museum.html

Incorporated, B. a. (2004). The Charlotte Branch Mint. Retrieved 10 2010, from Blanchardonline.com: http://www.blanchardonline.com/AmericanRarities/archive-08/char.html

Knapp, D. R. (1999 Revised). Golden Promise in the Piedmont: The Story of John Reed's Mine. Reed Gold Mine.

Kratt, M. (2009). Charlotte North Carolina A Brief History. Charleston: The History Press.

Mint Museum Of Art. (2006). 1936-2006 70 Years Celebrating the past/Envisioning the Future. Retrieved 2010, from http://www.mintmuseum.org/_userFiles/File/SeptOct06%2070th%20anniversary.pdf

Morrill, D. D. (2006). Historic Charlotte An Illustrated History of Charlotte & Mecklenburg County. San Antonio: Historical Publishing Network.

Observer, C. (1936, October 18). Museum of Art Opening is Set. The Charlotte Observer , p. Section 2 page 1.

Opponents of Razing of Mint Building Expect to Organize. (1931, May 20). The Charlotte Observer , p. Section 1 Page 4.

PSMG, Inc. (2004). Mint Museum of Art in Charlotte, NC, Honors Harry and Mary Dalton's Contributions with Exhibition. Retrieved 12 2010, from Carolina Arts: http://www.carolinaarts.com/105mint.html

The Cliffside Historical Society. (2010). History Profile:Dr. Rush Shull. Retrieved 12 2010, from remember Cliffside: http://remembercliffside.com/history/profiles/shull/shull.html#top

Wilkinson, H. H. (1973). The Mint Museum of Art at Charlotte A Brief History. Charotte: Heritage Printers Inc.

 

For the Art History Nerd in You

This is Awesome! See if you can Identify all of the paintings by name and artist!

Early Nineteenth Century Reform Movements

The Second Great Awakening pushed people to become morally and socially responsible. It emphasized the family and celebrated the mother as being an important part of society even though women had been treated as second -class citizens to this point. It also contributed to social unity and a greater sense of community for stamping out sin and produced social reform movements, which attacked immoral behaviors like drinking, gambling and prostitution.

The abolitionist movement challenged the most vital component of southern society. This, especially the Dred Scott Case, contributed to major political and social conflict between the north and south, pushing America to the brink of civil war. Women were largely involved in the abolitionist movement, viewing similarities between their oppression and slavery.

The women's movement grew largely out of their involvement in the abolitionist movement. Industrialism called men out of the home to work and left the women in their own domain to run the household and raise the children. They viewed this responsibility as an opportunity to make the world a better place through reform. This spawned the temperance movement, which opposed the consumption of alcohol. Many women believed that drinking alcohol was a way for men to waste money, distracting them from family obligations and inclining them toward violent and abusive behavior. Eventually, women began to make strides in securing their own liberation, working toward suffrage rights and equality.

These movements contributed to long lasting change in America by reinventing politics, which now had to appeal to a more expansive electorate. These movements established the base for today's special interest and lobbyist groups.

Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings-

I know this is kind of a historical side note but it is relevant in the respect that it sheds light on subject of Thomas Jefferson's inner turmoil concerning slavery and racism. Jefferson struggled with the notion of slavery in the context of his time and the story of he and Sally Hemings is one that is still controversial and hotly debated today. Talk about something having legs, this issue has surpassed and outlasted long forgotten scandal of the day. Of late, there have been many studies both scientific and genealogical conducted on the relationship of Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings. Many books have been written and it has graced the national news more than once. The story of the two who allegedly had an affair for thirty-eight years is one not to be overlooked. It demonstrates the complexity of its time and the unfaltering viewpoint of Jefferson himself that his racist viewpoint may be wrong.

Jefferson's wife, Martha died in 1782 and Jefferson was devastated by the loss. His appointment in Paris in 1784 during this tumultuous time in his life confounded his grief. An outbreak of epidemic disease in Virginia prompted him to send for his daughter, Maria. Her travelling companion was one of his slaves left to the estate by Martha, Sally Hemings. Sally Hemings was thought to be the youngest half sister of Thomas Jefferson's wife Martha through her father and one of his slaves, Elizabeth Hemings. Upon his death, all of the Hemings family became the property of Martha and Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson requested that a companion be sent with the child and since the preferred companion, Isabel had recently given birth, Sally Hemings was to be her substitute. As rumor has it, at some point during her two year stay in France, Sally Hemings became pregnant by Jefferson and under new French law could have petitioned for her freedom and stayed in France instead of returning with Jefferson to the United States and a continued life of servitude for her and her unborn child. The story goes that she refused to return with Jefferson unless he would agree to free her children. Jefferson agreed and they returned to the States where two of Sally's children were "given their time" and five more were freed upon Jefferson's death. For a widower such as Thomas Jefferson, the taking of a slave for companionship was a fairly common practice, at least in the southern states of America during the 1600, 1700 and 1800's.

Unfortunately, during the election of 1804, the Federalist party got wind of the illicit affair (alleged) and did a bit of media mudslinging. The 1804 campaign became known for this juicy tidbit but it had little effect on the election and Jefferson still won by leaps and bounds, carrying fifteen of the seventeen states.

At the end of the day, the story about Jefferson and Hemings is a propos to the great American contradiction, the dichotomy of "all men are created equal" and the peculiar institution on which the life and fortune of Jefferson were built. Almost all Anglo-Saxon people of the day, even the abolitionists, were of the opinion that African-Americans were racially inferior. Jefferson agonized over this and even though he was inclined toward racism, he held out the possibility that he might be wrong. He was a revolutionary in his thinking at that time.

Britain taxes the colonies

 

During the 1600's Britain saw the colonization of the new world as a cash cow, or at least hoped it would be. It had funded much of the exploration and written charters for many of the colonies and territories acquired by the mid 1600's. In return for funding, transportation and land, England expected its share of goods and profits from the British colonies. Colonists depended upon shipments of goods and supplies from Europe to keep them going. Lucrative crops including tobacco, rice, sugar, saltfish, grains and hardwoods coming out of the colonies demanded trade on shipping routes to Europe, the Caribbean and Africa. England controlled this commerce and capitalized on this new found source of income through tariffs and taxes. Before long, the colonists who had put their blood, sweat and tears into the land and producing the goods found a way to circumvent the British rule and began smuggling goods directly to buyers, cutting out the middle man, the Crown. England was pissed, and not in a one-too-many pints sort of way, so they retaliated by passing Acts in Parliament. These included the Navigation Acts whereby restrictions were put on how and who supplied goods to the colonies and how the colonies traded with Europe. England basically established a monopoly on the shipping of goods back and forth from the colonies so they could control the duties they would receive. In the meantime in England, war and conflict with other European countries was rapidly draining the treasury. By the end of the Seven Years War in 1763, England had an enormous debt to pay. Parliament thought that the Colonists should subsidize part of the debt for defending the colonies during this time as well as help pay administration costs incurred by the colonies from London. England had tried to offset some of the costs and regain lost funds through several imposed taxes to this point including the Molasses Act implemented from 1733 through 1763. This forced the colonists to purchase more expensive sugar from The British West Indies, increasing England's profit margin instead of buying it from the French West Indies, which was much less expensive for the settlers in America. Colonists resented this and in 1764 when it was renewed as the Sugar Act by parliament, it caused much unrest in the colonies. In 1765, a further effort to refill the war chest in England by penalizing the colonies through the Stamp Act had begun. The Stamp Act imposed a tax on all official documents as well as newspapers, magazines and land transfers. These and other documents had to be printed on paper produced in England that had the revenue stamp embossed in it and the tax had to be paid in British currency, not paper colonial money. Outrage from the colonists prompted colonial legislatures to petition Parliament to repeal the act, and nine colonies sent delegates to a congress with the purpose of drafting a statement of protest. The Sons of Liberty rallied support for the resistance movement from the public and American merchants organized non-import associations that were designed to hit London merchants right in the wallet and convince them to support repeal. All of these pressures contributed to the repeal of this law in 1766.

The Townshend Acts, named for Lord North Charles Townshend who supported the taxation of the colonies, levied taxes on trade goods. Similar to the Navigation acts, the Townshend Acts taxed paper, tea and glass but the tax was levied on goods imported from Britain instead of foreign trade and some of the revenue would go to pay some officials in the colonies. This meant that the colonies could not put an official in their pocket by directly withholding his pay. Protests came in the form of a circular letter to be discussed in state congresses which was vehemently opposed by English appointed governors who rapidly dissolved their assemblies when colonial delegates voted to reject the recall of the letter and discuss it anyway. This incident reestablished the Sons of Liberty who in retaliation for the Acts lead a campaign to involve the public, men and women, to agree not to purchase British goods. The women organized as well and became a major force in the non consumption movement, hurting the tea, textiles, and foodstuffs. "Buy American" prompted women to spin their own cloth, drink local tea and purchase home grown food. In 1769, imports dropped dramatically.

The Boston Massacre was Britain's answer to the Townshend Acts debacle. 4,000 troops were sent into Boston, a hotbed of colonial opposition. The soldiers competed in an already depleted job market with the populous of Boston. Of course, this sparked angry encounters with the locals and on the fifth of March, 1770, a group of waterfront workers who were pissed (and this time I mean it in the "had way too much whiskey" sort of way) got into a scuffle with nine British soldiers. The mob outnumbered the company of soldiers and one thing led to another before someone in the crowd shouted "fire!" The Redcoats opened fire and five civilians were killed on that day. British troops were then withdrawn from the city and the Townshend Acts were repealed.

After a relatively calm period in Boston after the Massacre, some of the Patriots, including Samuel Adams, felt that the resistance movement might relax. In 1773, Sam Adams found a very good way to fan the flames of a dying ember. Parliament granted a legal monopoly to the East India Company on tea shipment into the colonies. In addition, merchants with loyalist connections had been chosen to distribute the tea, allowing them to undercut the American merchants. The colonists and Patriots were furious and when three cargo ships carrying huge amounts of tea sailed into Boston Harbor, a plan was hatched. On Sixteen December, 1773, a group of men dressed as Indians boarded the three ships and dumped every last case of tea into the harbor.

This series of events paved the way for revolution. In response, Parliament passed a myriad of acts aimed at strangling the colonies into submission. The colonists retaliated by holding the first Continental Congress and formally opposed the Coercive Acts. They also provided for a second meeting if their grievances were not addressed and satisfied by England. They had not yet declared their independence but the ball started rolling in that direction. The Revolution had begun.

The Progression of American Slave Rebellion

Slavery is a big ol' black eye for America. The irony is that if slavery hadn't existed, neither would we. Slavery allowed America to become a global leader in agriculture, provided cash crops like tobacco and cotton for international trade and made the settlement of the southwest possible after the Louisiana Purchase. African slaves were first brought to Virginia in 1607 on ships through the middle passage. The people were chained together in the bellies of ships where it was often devastatingly hot, living for weeks to months at a time in their own excrement with disease- ridden rodents. Many humans did not survive the trip. A speculated one-third of human cargo died from disease or malnourishment. Those who did survive had the unfortunate fate of being scrutinized and sold to mercurial tempered plantation owners and put to work in the fields of the south. Tobacco and cotton crop cultivation was tremendously taxing work. The temperatures in the south were blistering and a workday often lasted from sun up to sun down. Some slaves were whipped, beaten, tortured and outright murdered by their owners. They lived in squalid conditions in small shacks and there might be two entire families in it. Slaves were encouraged to procreate. Thomas Jefferson wrote, "A child raised every two years is of more profit than the crop of the best laboring man (Norton)." Women often died in childbirth due to lack of medical attention and infection. Young girls and women were often raped by white masters producing "mulatto" offspring, which brought shame upon many. A number of slave owners actually took on slave women as mistresses.

One now infamous case of this is the relationship between Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemmings which has gained notable attention of late. Arguably, though, even with all of the physical violence and violation slave men and women had to endure, the worst part was the mental dehumanization. The psychological effects slavery had on the human spirit were detrimental.

African slaves reacted to this horrid treatment in different ways. Some ran away, some held secret prayer meetings to worship, some revolted. More common was the day to day resistance which alerted to slaves' discontent. Sabotage was a tactic often used according to an article in December 2007 issue of "History Review". Slaves, in reaction to brutal treatment would harm livestock, deliberately break tools, fake illness, or work inefficiently. Some resorted to arson. Women often performed acts of infanticide. One slave woman named Sylvia had given birth to thirteen children whom she promptly murdered explaining that she'd rather have them dead than suffer slavery (Phillips). Another widespread form of resistance was running away. The majority of slaves ran temporarily and returned when danger of punishment had subsided. Cruel and brutal punishment, even death deterred most of the enslaved attempting permanent escape. Well organized slave recovery parties administered these punishments and then the fugitives had to deal with their masters upon return. The stakes were very high for those attempting to flee to northern free states and Canada. Spending a few days away from the plantation hiding out was a more feasible way of negotiating with cruel slave drivers. One former slave who had lived into the 1930's recalled that even though those around him were whipped, he never was because when he thought they were coming for him, he'd run off into the woods.

The owner's men would come after him and tell him to come on back and they wouldn't whip him. Many stories like this are recorded. For the slave, this action established to the master that his stronghold on the enslaved men and women was not absolute. Perhaps one of the most historically infamous slave rebellions was that of Frederick Douglas. After being hired out from a life as a house servant to a cruel master, Douglass endured six months of brutality and beatings. Douglass became fed up and fought back on one instance, which ended with the master, Edward Covey, giving up. After this, the whippings stopped and more importantly, Douglass had an epiphany. Douglass wrote, "The cowardice departed and bold defiance took its place." Douglass went on to escape into New York by disguising himself as a sailor. He was taught to read by the wife of a former master and while working as a laborer in New Bedford, he wrote a book detailing his life as a slave in Maryland. The book, entitled "Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass" was published in 1845 and he became a popular speaker as well as an anti-slavery spokesperson. He fame grew so rapidly that he moved to England fearing that he would be arrested as a fugitive under the 1850 legislature. He Moved back to Rochester, NY in 1847 and began publishing an abolitionist newspaper, "The North Star." Douglass went on to become one of Abraham Lincoln's trusted advisors recruiting soldiers for the union and speaking out for equal pay for equal work for them during the civil war. In 1848, the "North Star" published a letter from Douglass to his former owner where he attacks the horror of slavery and writes, "I intend to make use of you as a weapon with which to assail the system of slavery… I shall make use of you as a means of exposing the character of the American church and clergy- and as a means of bringing this guilty nation, with yourself, to repentance. I am your fellow man but not your slave."

The Underground Railroad was another means of slave revolt in which thousands were able to escape to be free men but often met with another harsh reality, having to take care of themselves with little or no means of doing it. The network of individuals helping slaves escape ran from the south northward. It had two primary stops along the way, one in Philadelphia and one in New York. Most of the "Conductors" who helped the runaway slaves escape into freedom were mainly white abolitionists. Some were former slaves themselves. Harriett Tubman is probably the most remembered. She had been born into slavery in Maryland and escaped to freedom in 1849. She returned hastily to the south to aid other escapees and was personally responsible for saving 300 people on nineteen separate trips. In 1857, she was able to liberate her parents. Tubman later served in the Union army as a cook and a spy and helped to lead an additional 750 slaves to freedom through this work. She was truly an American hero.

Written by Harriett Beecher Stowe, a white preacher, in 1852, "Uncle Tom's Cabin" was a shocking wake up call to the injustice of slavery. Kenneth C. Davis writes of the book, "In a time when slavery was discussed with dry legalisms like "States' rights" and "popular Sovereignty," this book personalized the question of slavery as no amount of abolitionist literature or congressional debate ever had." "Uncle Tom's Cabin" was, as one can imagine, controversial and inflammatory but sold over 1.5 million copies worldwide. The book followed the story of a main character, Tom, through much hardship as well as other characters whose lives revolve around him. Although the characters were fictitious, the incidents in the book were documented accounts of actual events. Stowe wrote "A Key to Uncle Tom's Cabin" in response to receipt of a package questioning the book's integrity and containing the ear of a slave. Uncle Tom's Cabin was the best- selling novel of the 19^th Century and is credited with helping to fan the flames of the abolitionist movement in the 1850's, spiraling America into the Civil war.

Not everyone agreed with or condoned slavery. The revolutionary thinking concerning slavery was born in the north, where states were far from slave societies. Abolition was gradually making its way through the north. In 1777 Vermont was the first state to ban slavery in its Constitution, Pennsylvania followed in 1780. Additional states north of Maryland followed suit as well in the years to come and this process became known as the First Emancipation. However, there was contradiction in American laws regarding slavery between the North and the South. When Slaves made their way into a free state, northern law granted the entitlement of civil rights to blacks presuming they were free. Southern law assumed them slaves and required their return to bondage. Dr. Benjamin Rush, an American revolutionary leader addressed slavery as being "A vice which degrades human nature (Norton)." In 1793 congress passed The Federal Fugitive Slave Acts or the "blood hound laws" requiring that runaway slaves be returned to their owners. This southern dominated legislation tried to force the hand of authorities in free states to remit renegade slaves to their masters. The law incensed northern abolitionists but was amended and again passed in 1850 as part of the Fugitive Slave Acts. Northerners felt that this was an attack on their principles, life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness for all men. Some northern states in response to the unjustness of this law passed personal liberty laws requiring a jury trial to be held before the alleged fugitive slave could be extradited back to his home state. Starting in the 1830's abolitionists brought suits against slave legislation in the court system and juries refused to convict people who aided slaves escape.

Southern slave owners correlated black resistance and their loss of control with northern abolitionists. This bred bitterness and deeply divided the nation. In 1859, John Brown, a fervent abolitionist, lead an invasion of Harper's Ferry with a small congregation. The raid was not well structured and was quickly quashed, but it certainly heightened the tensions between north and south. Talk of succeeding from the union was a bound. The epidemic of mutiny turned the tide toward war. The outbreak of uprisings gave the pro-secessionists the psychological weapon they needed to launch the Civil War. The black resistance movements ultimately played an instrumental role in causing the conflict that would eradicate slavery for good.

 

Works Cited

Davis, Kenneth C. Don't Know Much About History. New York: Harper Collins, 2008.

Kay, Anthony E. "Neighborhoods and Nat Turner: The Making of a Slave Rebel and Unmaking of a Slave Rebellion." Journal of the Early Republic (2007): 705-720.

Many. Wikipedia. <www.wikipedia.com>.

Norton, Sheriff, Katzman, Blight, Chudacoff, Logevall, Bailey. A People & A Nation. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2008.

Phillips, Gervase. "Slave Resistance in the Antebellum South." History
(2007): 6.