Transcript The New Nation - Social Studies School Service

The New Nation
Essential Questions
• What major arguments and discussions occurred with
regard to the roles the federal government should play?
• How did the earliest presidents view their roles, and
what actions did they take to help establish the office
of the presidency?
• How did the new nation’s relations with foreign
countries affect its earliest years?
• In what ways did sectional differences influence the
development of the new nation and its government?
• How were different groups of people affected by the
events that occurred and decisions the government
made during the early years of the nation?
An Overview of the New Nation
• Most Americans
lived on farms
• Largest cities
located on
Atlantic harbors
• Growth of
manufacturing
and trade
• Sense of unity and
optimism for many
(mostly for whites)
Boston harbor in 1791
African Americans in the
New Nation: Slaves
Slaves using a cotton gin
• Cotton gin caused expansion
in slavery
• Slaves composed a third of
the South’s population by
early 1800s
• Attitudes in the North
shifted after the Revolution
• Northern legislatures began
to ban slavery
African Americans in the
New Nation: Free Blacks
• In the North:
– Worked in factories
or trades
– Discrimination
and segregation
– Some set up separate
schools and churches
• In the South, blacks risked
enslavement if they couldn’t
prove their free status
Many free blacks in cities found
work as musicians
Native Americans
• Land disputes with settlers
• Tribes gave up some of their
land in exchange for
protection, cash, and goods
• Treaties routinely broken
• Native Americans
increasingly lost trust in the
U.S. government
Women in the New Nation
• “Republican Motherhood”:
women’s role in instilling
American values in
their children
• Practical, domestic education
• Women discouraged from
becoming too educated
Women in the New Nation (cont.)
• “Cult of True Womanhood”:
pious, chaste, domestic,
submissive
• Domestic work seen as a
divine calling
• Women lacked legal standing
apart from their husbands
Illustration depicting many of the ideals
of the “cult of true womanhood”
Discussion Questions
1. What made relations between the U.S. and Native
Americans increasingly strained?
2. What was expected of women as part of Republican
Motherhood?
3. How did American society define women’s roles?
Washington Becomes President
• Admired for intellect, good
judgment, and integrity
• 1789 election; Adams as VP
• Initially refused a salary