American History

Anne Hutchinson was born in Great Britain in 1591. She was considered to be one of the best educated women of the seventieth century.  Anne’s family lived in London, where she became the wife of William Hutchinson, a follower of John Cotton. In 1634, Anne Hutchinson and her family had to leave for America to settle in Boston. Then, Anne and her husband established a new church there. They formed a new Christian community, where Anne was a spiritual adviser. Religious issues of the Covenant of Grace and the Covenant of Works became crucial points to be discussed in the community. It turned into the Antinomian Controversy (1636-1638). In the result, a trial took place, and Anne Hutchinson with her children had to leave Boston. In August 1643, Indians killed her together with all children, except the nine-year-old daughter.

Frederick Douglass (1818-1895) was a famous African American abolitionist leader. He was a prominent writer and politician.  His mother was a slave. In childhood, Frederick learned to read and write. When he was twelve, Douglass read The Columbian Orator. This book gave him the first lessons of oratorical skills and influenced his further career of a statesman. After that, Frederick understood that education could be the sole reliable way to get freedom. When he was twenty, Frederick escaped to the North. He married and changed his surname there. In 1839, Douglass started his career as a preacher and wrote his first antislavery articles. He sent them to the journal The Liberator. In 1843, Frederick Douglass joined the American Anti-Slavery Society. He was the first abolitionist leader, who supported women in their human rights struggle.

William Penn (1644-1718) was a founder of Pennsylvania. In 1682, he arrived in America to live in the colony, which became his property. Then, William Penn founded Philadelphia and started the Quaker movement, which split Pennsylvania. William Penn created a philosophical work to unite all English colonies, which became the basis for establishing the United States. He developed the Frame of Government, which became the basis for the Constitution. As a prominent philosopher, William Penn decided to solve international problems in the Old World from a religious point of view of the Quaker movement. Thus, he concluded that European countries should be united into a sole state with its sole Parliament to put an end to all political and economic contradictions.

The Louisiana Purchase happened in 1803.  At that time, the United States bought 828 thousand square miles of the land from France for fifteen million dollars. Its territory included the land of fifteen American states and two Canadian provinces. From the very beginning, Louisiana was a Spanish territory, but Americans considered it as their strategic object because of the River of Mississippi, as the major transport way for their trade. In 1800, a French ruler Napoleon Bonaparte gained it from Spain according to the secret Third Treaty of San Ildefonso. Because of the lack of money for the future war in Europe, he had to sell it to the United States. Though it was an unconstitutional act, it eliminated the French rival.  

The Emancipation Proclamation emerged on January 1, 1863. President Abraham Lincoln developed it to eliminate slavery in eleven states of the country, in which there was a rebellion. Abraham Lincoln used his right as a commander-in-chief, but it did not become a National Law. According to the Proclamation, former slaves should serve in the American armed forces for payment, and the executive authorities should recognize former slaves as free persons. At the same time, the Proclamation neither made them citizens nor compensated their masters for their losses. About three million African Americans gained their liberation, but it took place in the Confederate States only. The Emancipation Proclamation initiated the further process to improve human rights of Americans by passing the Thirteenth Amendment in 1865.    

The Political Role of Religion in the United States

Religion played one of the major roles in forming the national identity of Americans, which became a basis for establishing the United States as a national independent country.  The aim of the paper is to analyze roles of such prominent political and religious leaders as John Winthrop, Roger Williams, Cecilia Calvert, William Penn, and George Whitefield in the formation of the national ideology in the United States.

A Puritan lawyer, John Winthrop, established the Massachusetts Bay Colony under his theory of a “city upon a hill”. He stood for the Puritan church only. A founder of the Providence Plantation, Roger Williams, established the first Baptist church in the New World and condemned slavery in the first thirteen colonies. A founder of the Province of Maryland, Cecil Calvert, was a Catholic. He was tolerant to other religious communities. A Quaker, William Penn, established the Province of Pennsylvania. He supported democracy and stood for religious freedom. An Anglican preacher, George Whitefield, spread Methodism in America and influenced Benjamin Franklin. He stood for democratization of religion, but advocated slavery in America.

The abovementioned American leaders were representatives of various religious branches, but they all formed a national ideology of the American people based on the Exceptionalism of democrats and conservators.

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