George Washington Was A Reluctant President. He Did Not Want To Seek Re-Election in 1792

The Premodernist YouTube Channel points out that "George Washington did not want to be reelected in 1792, but he was anyway." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1CSkUqMddgo&t=1940s 0:00 Washington's decision to retire after one term 4:18 Hamilton's proposals: Funding 7:01 Hamilton's proposals: Assumption 7:57 Centralization vs. state autonomy 9:53 Hamilton's proposals: A national bank 11:21 The underlying cultural divide 14:10 …

Attack Ads, Circa 1800

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_zTN4BXvYI&t=102s ReasonTV: "Have this year's negative political ads really "taken dirty to a whole new level, as CNN's Anderson Cooper frets? Is a "return to civility...a relic of a bygone era," as President Barack Obama laments? Er, not exactly. If anonymous political speech, the other widely decried villain of this political season, helped found the …

Re-Interpreting the Founding Fathers For New Generations

In two Slender Threads newsletters, I focus on how America's founding fathers are being reinterpreted for new generations. But Americans born before 2000 or later who encountered old-fashioned, boring, or traditional views of history mainly from the viewpoints of White men will be interested in how to prepare for watching the Alexander Hamilton musical and …

Should Jefferson’s Statue in NYC City Hall Be Removed? Historian Sean Wilentz Explains Why He Opposes Such Removal

As a historian, Princeton University historian Sean Wilentz believes a statue of Thomas Jefferson "remains a symbol of the democratic values that New Yorkers hold dear." In November, 2021, the New York City Public Design Commission approvef the removal of Jefferson's statue from the city council chamber at City Hall and gave it to a …

1811: Largest Slave Rebellion in American History Took Place on Louisiana’s German Coast

The stereotype that many of us were taught in American history class, either implicitly or explicitly, was that slaves were submissive, docile, and compliant. Clint Smith in Crash Course Black History challenges that myth as he discusses the largest slave revolt in American History which few knew about because it wasn't taught until relatively recently, …

Hamilton and Jefferson Hated Each Other. This Led to the Two-Party Partisan Divide

George Washington, who feared that hyper-partisanship would lead to tribalism and even civil war in America, accidently planted the seeds of the two-party system by placing Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson in his cabinet when they despised each other, almost from the day they first met. A new book by Dennis Rasmussen, author of "Fear …

Why Thomas Jefferson’s Anti-Slavery Passage Was Removed from the Declaration of Independence

History.com: "The founding fathers were fighting for freedom. Just not for everyone." In an early version of the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson "condemned slavery as one of the many evils foisted upon the colonies by the British crown. The passage was cut from the final wording." He called slavery a “cruel war against human nature …

Phillis Wheatley, the First African American Author, Is Focus of Crash Course Lecture

Phillis Wheatley Peters (1753-1784), "also spelled Phyllis and Wheatly was the first African-American author of a published book of poetry. Born in West Africa, she was sold into slavery at the age of seven or eight and transported to North America. She was enslaved by the Wheatley family of Boston." Wikipedia https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3l9Pmza7Gs&t=1s Sources: Crash Course Black …

Thomas Jefferson: 10 Posts

Thomas Jefferson’s Wisdom, Brilliance, Flaws and Idea of Democracy Shaped America. The Duality of Thomas Jefferson Why Thomas Jefferson’s Anti-Slavery Passage Was Removed from the Declaration of Independence Hamilton and Jefferson Hated Each Other. This Led to the Two-Party Partisan Divide Americans: Subjects or Citizens? Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello Finally Addresses Slavery; Sally Hemings as a Founding Mother. Descendants of …

Happy Birthday, Maine! Its’ Proud and Integral Contribution to Slavery’s End

March 15, 1820 was the day that Maine joined the Union as part of the Missouri Compromise engineered by House Speaker Henry Clay of KY. That legislation stopped northern attempts to prohibit slavery's expansion by admitting Missouri as a slave state. But Mainers were upset that their state was used to legalize slavery in any …