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James A. Henretta's Society And Republicanism

Decent Essays

In his work, Society and Republicanism: America in 1787, James A. Henretta expounds upon the political tension that stems from the birth of “life, liberty and pursuit of happiness.” Like everything in America perspective, wealth, and social standing greatly affects the “American dream” that people are chasing. The pursuit of property, which is now equated with the pursuit of happiness, becomes a direct conflict between white slave owners and African Americans who seek liberty. Women also begin to inquire about more freedoms, which have been denied to them because of laws of coverture inherited from merry old England. Henretta believes that republican ideology staunchly lays the foundation for the early American people to create a more equal …show more content…

America was divided between those whom wished to maintain more of an upper class of aristocrats, who working class or poor people differed to and those who wished for a more democratic equality for all people. The doctrine of “We the People” leaves Henertta to question who the people are. Did “we the people” include women? Though Abigail Adams put in a plea to be remembered, it would be years before women have the right to vote. Even though the request was said in an almost cheeky manner and as a wife and not as a social reformer, it meant it was something that women thought about. This is especially important in a time when women held no real legal rights, going from being a dependent in their father’s house to a dependent in their husband’s house. Women were not even able to give a public speech. While John Adams reply of being masters only in name is a humorous reflection of some households still today, what if women’s right had been penned in at the same time as the constitution? Unfortunately it did not happen but the republican ideology did lead to further equality in marriages and more education for women as they were responsible for raising future leaders of the republic. The second great Awakening had a profound influence over the rights of women as the evangelical revivals made Christianity important to the budding American social …show more content…

Henertta uses numbers to show the gravity of the situation that America was faced with, “in 1787, no fewer than 750,000 Blacks (20 percent of the entire population of the United States) were held in hereditary bondage.” White landowners believed that their hard won rights were being infringed upon, slaves were property and crucial to their survival. On the other side slavery had been condemned by the Methodist church as it was a violation of the Golden Law of God and went against the very philosophies that took America into the Revolutionary war. The ingenuity of the American people has never been more apparent than the slow emancipation of African Americans, whether through the enforcement of laws or the disregard of laws, there always seems to be one more step before freedom. The Pennsylvania Emancipation Act that did not release any slaves but granted that if born after 1780, they were free, after 28 years of being a slave to their mother’s master. At the time the law must have seemed better than being a slave for their whole life but in retrospect they would be faced with being free but still doing the work of a slave, of being stolen and sold back into slavery, of being killed by a mob for falsified transgressions, law upon law made to disenfranchise African Americans as a whole, as well as systematic oppression for

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