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Summary Portfolio Issues in American Literary and Cultural History
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Summary of 12 pages for the course cultural studies at Uni Tuebin (Lecture summary)
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Serena HedrichL: Issues in American Literature and Cultural History II: From The Revolution to The Civil
War
Prof. Dr. Michael Butter
WS 2021/2022
Portfolio
5746482
serena.hedrich@student.uni-tuebingen.de
B.Ed., 3. Semester
Advanced Module, Literary Studies, 3 ECTS
31.03.2022
, Lecture 1: Introduction
This Lecture covers the time frame from 1776 to 1861, when the Civil War broke out. In 1776
the Declaration of Independence was passed. Some important points of the Declaration are
the “Laws of Nature” and that everybody is endowed or has ‘Natural Rights’. Further,
Governments deriving powers from the governed. Besides that, it focusses on the king and
points out that the king is behind all this. At the beginning America was just a ‘lose bundle of
States’ with no common identity between the 13 States, which were individual. The
constitution from 1776 is still present with no big changes over the centuries. There were
different influences which changed the country (drastically), of particular note: Population,
Urbanization, and the developing States till 1861.
Westward Expansion
On the one hand, there was the Westward Expansion from the east coast of the continent,
where the first 13 States were located. Since they became independent from the United
Kingdom these territories were ‘added’. European territories (especially those from France
and Spain) became States as well at some point later in history. After the American-Mexican
War there were 34 States which developed from the East to the West coast over the
centuries.
Expansion and Slavery
On the other hand, there was Expansion and Slavery. Firstly, it has to be mentioned that
both subjects are connected to each other, and it cannot be talked about one of these
without the other. Mainly the southern States practiced slavery, which was already in 1820
controversial. The main reason why slavery was (only) in the southern States is the “Missouri
Compromise” which basically means that there was a ’virtual line’ at 40°, 40 minutes and all
the States below that ‘line’ were ‘Slavery States’ under Spanish rule.
Market Revolution
Another big topic to talk about is the Market Revolution. In 1790 literally all Americans lived
out of any cities and most of the people/men were farmers who plant their own food and
goods they need to live and to feed their families. At most there were local trade with
neighbours or good friends. As they began to start bigger trade and also to trade with money
goods were shipped through the country via canals. This transformed the whole society and
life of the country and the people living there. Over the time more and more big factories
emerged which means new jobs. Especially for (unmarried) people who left their families to
earn money, which became more and more important in the following years, and also send
some of the money to their families home, so they can buy things they need for life. In these
times it was really untypical and rare for (young) people to leave their homes and have jobs
‘far away’ in (other) cities.
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