Republican Rejects

1
Republican Rejects

• Women, Native Americans, and Blacks in the Early
  Post-Colonial Era

2
A Womans Place

• Republican reformers had few strategies in mind
  when considering role of women and education
• Preparation of next generation
• Teaching of republican virtue and morals
• Role Models
• Art though a wife? Respect thy husband oppose
  him not unreasonably, but yield thy will to his,
  and thou shalt be blest with peace and concord
  study to make him respectable hide his faults.
  (Webster)

3
Jefferson on the Limits of Republicanism

• "there would yet be excluded from their
  deliberations
• (1) infants, until arrived at years of
  discretion.
• (2) Women, who to prevent depravation of morals
  and ambiguity of issue, could not mix
  promiscuously in the public meetings of men.
• (3) Slaves." (As cited in Nock, 1966, p. 57).

4
Limiting the Franchise

• "The appointment of a woman to office is an
  innovation for which the public is not prepared,
  nor I." (As cited in Miller, 1995, p. 184).

5
The Jeffersonian View

• Education of Women
• "a plan for female education has never been a
  subject of systematic contemplation with me. It
  has occupied my attention so far as only the
  education of my own daughters occasionally
  required." (As cited in Padover, 1956, p. 297)
• Centered around husband, hearth, children
• Simplistic education
• encourage development of artistic talents of
  women
• those aspects that made them worthy companions
  for their husbands and satisfactory tutors of
  their children.

6
Female Curriculum?

• From 8 to 10 o'clock practice music. From 10 to 1
  dance one day and draw another. From 1 to 2 draw
  on the day you dance, and write a letter the next
  day. From 2 to 4 read French. From 4 to 5
  exercise yourself in music. From 5 till bedtime
  read English, write etc. (As cited in Peterson,
  1970, p 268).

7
The Rush View

• Important that women prepare new republican
  machines!
• a weak and ignorant woman will always be
  governed with the greatest difficulty
• CONTROL!!!

8
The Rush Curriculum

• English
• Handwriting
• Arithmetic
• Bookkeeping
• History
• Music
• Dancing

• Biography
• Astronomy
• Travel books
• Natural Philosophy
• Poetry
• Moral Essays
• Christianity

9
Women on Education Girls Gone Wild?

• Abigail Adams
• If we mean to have Heroes, Statesmen, and
  Philosophers, we should have learned women.
• Citizens?

10
The Slaves

• Jefferson on slavery
• Indeed, I tremble for my country when I reflect
  that God is just that his justice cannot sleep
  forever
• So why did he not push harder for emancipation,
  or emancipate his own?
• Does this hypocrisy weaken the republican vision
  of America?

11
Educating the Slaves?

• 1778
• Jefferson pushes for gradual emancipation in
  Virginia
• Educating all slaves born after certain date in
  farming, arts, or sciences according to abilities
• Did have doubts about the intellectual, moral
  equivalency of blacks and whites
• Repatriate ex-slaves to Africa, with arms, tools,
  domestic animals provided by govt
• Resigned to the institution

12
Why Fear Education?

• 1791-1804
• Brutal revolution in Haiti
• 1800
• Gabriels revolution in Virginia
• 1822
• Denmark Vesey plot in South Carolina
• How would these provide the impetus to deny
  education to blacks and demand harsh treatment?

13
Some Lucky Ones

• Some African-Americans did gain education
• Primarily city and house slaves, usually
  through a female owner
• Freed or free blacks in North did develop
  community schools supported by community funds
• Christian education
• Richard Allen

14
Jefferson on Native Americans

• Your blood will mix with ours and will spread
  with ours over this great land.
• Native Americans as whites in loincloths and
  moccasins?
• Proud of daughters marriage to Pocahontas
  descendants

15
How to Americanize Natives?

• Jefferson rejected a role for missionaries and
  concept of Christianization
• Changes Indian School at William and Mary to an
  anthropological institute
• Believed that Native Americans would be best
  served by joining European culture

16
Becoming White

• McMasters Primary History on Natives
• As of old, they are still divided into many
  tribes, speaking different languages and living
  in various stages of civilization. Some, as the
  Sioux, live in wigwams and are brave, smart, and
  dangerous. Some, as the Cherokees, are well off,
  dwell in good houses, and dress much as we do.
  Others, as the Shoshones, are ignorant,
  shiftless, and dirty, and wander about in bands
  like tramps
• Most of the Indians, even the fiercest of them,
  are absolutely under the control of the
  reservation agents. Every Indian may, however,
  become a citizen, if he will leave his tribe and
  live as white men do. (227)

17
So What?

• So what do these rejections indicate about early
  America and the concept of what it means to be an
  American?
• What might be the consequences of these early
  rejections?