Developing an American identity

Forging a distinctive identity

As the new republic established itself among the community of nations, its peoples began creating new art, literature, music, and architecture that reflected distinct American themes and concerns. Born in France on New Year’s Eve 1735, Hector St. John de Crèvecouer fought in the French and Indian War but soon obtained British citizenship and moved to the colony of New York. Later imprisoned on suspicions of espionage by the British in New York during the Revolutionary War, St. John de Crèvecouer published insightful essays that provided many Europeans with their first visions of Americans as separate and distinct from their British and European ancestors and colonizers.

Letters from an American farmer, Hector St. John de Crèvecouer, 1782

He is an American, who, leaving behind him all his ancient prejudices and manners, receives new ones from the new mode of life he has embraced, the new government he obeys, and the new rank he holds. He becomes an American by being received in the broad lap of our great Alma Mater. Here individuals of all nations are melted into a new race of men, whose labours and posterity will one day cause great changes in the world. Americans are the western pilgrims, who are carrying along with them that great mass of arts, sciences, vigour, and industry which began long since in the east; they will finish the great circle.

Republican motherhood

During the late 18th century, in the aftermath of the American Revolution and the ratification of the Constitution, the primary cultural emphasis regarding the roles and status of women, promoted primarily by men, was on the raising of patriotic, virtuous children. Many men, both prominent and obscure, argued in favor of women being excluded from politics and most economics outside the home, and instead urged women to provide their children, especially sons, with positive, primarily Christian, examples of virtue, morality, and patriotism.

Benjamin Rush, Thoughts upon female education, 1787

The influence of female education would be still more extensive and useful in domestic life. The obligations of gentlemen to qualify themselves by knowledge and industry to discharge the duties of benevolence would be increased by marriage; and the patriot–the hero–and the legislator would find the sweetest reward of their toils in the approbation and applause of their wives. Children would discover the marks of maternal prudence and wisdom in every station of life, for it has been remarked that there have been few great or good men who have not been blessed with [a] wife and prudent mothers…

It is important to remember, too, that these cultural developments and trends were primarily designed by and for free, white American men; enslaved peoples and Native Americans were not included in these visions of independent farmers, merchants and Republican mothers. White women, typically from wealthier families, contributed a variety of diary entries and letters on the subject of Republican motherhood, but faced significant obstacles to changing laws and opinions.

Freedom and equality for all?

Throughout the early years of the American republic, emerging tensions about the rights and status of all people of African heritage, whether free or enslaved, embroiled Americans in a series of profound philosophical and practical questions. While the Declaration of Independence contains the famous line about “all men are created equal,” approximately 90% of African-Americans were enslaved and nearly 20% of the country’s population, almost 900,000 people out of 5 million Americans, according to the 1800 census. Tragically, the issues of slavery and citizenship would not be resolved until after the Civil War in the 1860s.

An argumentative people

Americans revere the Constitution and the 5 Fundamental Freedoms contained in the First Amendment, but the applications of these rights and freedoms have changed dramatically over the past 230+ years. During the John Adams administration, Federalist political allies passed the Alien and Sedition Acts, aimed at changing citizenship eligibility criteria for newly arrived immigrants in the first law and punishing “dangerous” speech and writing in the second. Newspaper publishers and editors critical of the Adams administration, and often encouraged by Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and friendly (Democratic-) Republican politicians and supporters, criticized President John Adams relentlessly during the Quasi War of the late 1790s. President Adams and the Federalists ultimately ordered several dozen newspaper publishers arrested and prosecuted, prompting Jefferson and Madison to publish the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions condemning the Sedition Act and the vindictive prosecution of these (Democratic-) Republican publishers. Within a few years, under the new presidential administration of Jefferson, and with a (Democratic-) Republican majority in Congress, the Alien and Sedition Acts expired.