Also, especially around the holidays, Christmas-themed decorations start to appear in public, government-run buildings.  I happen to not mind Christmas decorations; however, I don’t think post offices or libraries should be able to so patently favor one celebration or religion over others, at least while claiming to support all equally.  I’m nearly certain that if Satanic symbols started showing up in a public school, even around a major celebration or holiday, people would almost definitely speak out against these signs.  While I’m not oblivious to the fact that the vast majority of people in the country are Christian, it seems that this is not enough justification to compensate for these missteps which go against the promise of religious tolerance.  Though the situation may be less than ideal, one glance in a newspaper is enough to show any discontented American such as myself that, in terms of freedom to practice religion, we have it pretty good.

For example, when Shay led his rebellion, leaders were less than pleased with the additional problem to deal with.  Especially at the time, when the government was still in development, gathering together the forces needed to suppress a fairly large uprising was difficult and bothersome.  Luckily for the country, the agitators were unsuccessful.  However, they managed to shed light on the fact that people had not forgotten the meaning behind the words they had fought for just years before.  They were still very used to the habit of protesting and rebelling when unhappy with the government.

Also, people like women and slaves started dreaming of being treated equally.  This was not according to the plan of many founders; however, it should have been predicted.  The very tool they used to free themselves was already starting to work for the people they wished to control and limit.  Though changes wouldn’t be coming for some time yet, the seeds of the ideas had been planted and were starting to firmly take root.  This mentality is still a huge part of our culture as we continue to work out the problems in our government.

Then, what’s more, they actually remained a country!  No apocalyptic collapse into ruin without the guiding hand of the British.  Not even a slow crumble into disarray.  The rest of the world didn’t get their chance to wag their fingers at the rebellious Americans and say, “I told you so”.  This, again, was not to be expected.  Though it wasn’t easy, the colonists managed to find a form of government that really worked, even without a hereditary monarchy.  Even from the start, America was a vast country and, considering the communications of the time, this maintained unity was not a small feat.

Apparently, as a result of chance or other underestimated factors, the Americans pulled through and persevered for the past couple centuries.  Was it home-field advantage that made the difference?  Was it a couple of lucky wins that gave the French the confidence to join the fight, perhaps?  It’s possible.  In any case, we beat the odds, won the war, and became a successful country that far exceeded nearly everyone’s expectations.

The interesting this is that the subject is much more complex than it originally seems. For example, I learned, for the first time this year, that there were slaves outside of the South in the United States and that even non-slave owners were indirectly profiting from the system. The idea of the noble, abolitionist Northerner that I’d learned about up to this point is pretty much gone now. Even if many never actually owned slaves themselves, they were no less culpable; without their support and trading, slavery never could have functioned.

Another new development for me was the degree to which slavery varied depending on the region. I’d always been aware that the “deep South” was the worst. I was, however, almost completely oblivious to the vast differences in slave cultures that developed. In Virginia, slaves were generally treated better and merged more cleanly with white society. The downside to this arrangement was that they were nearly always supervised, making escape difficult. Further south, in the Carolinas and Georgia, up to eighty percent of the population were black slaves. As a result, they were much more isolated and left to build a unique culture of their own. Also, they were closer to Florida, which was a good destination for an escapee. Unfortunately, though, they were treated very harshly to try to suppress rebellion and instill fear. These newer facts help to clarify the image of slavery in America.

As is apparent from his efforts to better himself, Franklin strongly believed in the value of education. Though his family did not put particular emphasis on this, he did not seem to want to fall into the path his family and society had set out for him. Though his father originally intended for him to pursue a career as a religious man, this did not fit because he was too focused on school. Because of this love of reading, he was allowed to start an apprenticeship with his older brother as a printer. Again, Benjamin went against the accepted values of the day by leaving the job. His devotion to reading and studying even subjects he didn’t prefer helped him exceed expectations and significantly improved his writing and speaking skills. As a teenager, he was so composed that he was able to befriend a governor, who was actually impressed by his abilities. He used these talents to help fulfill his ambition, along with his natural intelligence, “frugality, diligence, and temperance” (58).

One of the main ideas that set him apart from most other people of his day was his lack of strong religious beliefs. Through, “reading… [he] became a real doubter in many points of… religious doctrine” (13). He put much more emphasis on logic and thinking than in belief. To improve his humility, he instructed himself to, “imitate Jesus and Socrates”; the fact that Franklin, who lived in society that emphasized religion so strongly, would compare the central holy figure to a philosopher (albeit a pretty remarkable one), shows his detachment from the need to fit in with socially conventional ideas (65). At the same time, though, he does not necessarily discard ideas for that reason, either.

Franklin definitely did not want to just keep his ideas to himself. One way he attempted to teach the public was through his book, Poor Richard’s Almanac. He was good at making the information approachable, as opposed to hiding his message in complexity that only the elite few could access. He learned to, at the very least, feign modesty which also helped spread his ideas. Specifically in his autobiography, he set himself up as an example. As often as he portrayed himself as the hero, he used his errors to demonstrate how not to behave. Through his dedication and ingenuity, Benjamin Franklin developed specific ideas and was able to spread them to the receptive ears of a developing America.

This leads to another fascinating fact about the Puritans that I had been unaware of: their belief in predestination.  To me, this seems backwards and likely to serve as a deterrent for trying to be a Puritan.  Why would someone try to be so extreme about morality if they could ignore these feelings and say it just wasn’t meant to be for them?  It seems to go against basic human instinct to have an exceptionally strict code of behavior, but to say that no matter what you do, your future is decided.

However, this is not the only pair of incongruous Puritan ideas.  Another example is their emphasis on hard, continual work and their simultaneous rejection of enjoying their wealth.  I can understand the reasoning for both of these ideas, but to believe them at the same time just seems silly.  Despite the fact that they influenced modern American society, I think these beliefs are part of the reason why Puritanism is not exactly popular today.

Many people, myself included until this class, still have a rosy and incorrect idea of what the beginning of America was truly like; even if they do know about the abuse of Native Americans and black slaves, they may still be misconceptions about early English settlers’ lives and their relations with the “savages” they encountered.  If I think back to when I was in pre-school or kindergarten, I remember being told about the how the settlers and Indians were friends and cooperated to share food.  Although I’m not shocked that my teacher didn’t tell my fellow five-year-olds and me about the fact that English considered the Native Americans to be less than human and routinely forced them off their land or brutally killed them, I still think that it’s wrong to give such a completely false account.  Despite the obvious lack of appeal in recognizing the horrors committed in our country’s past, it’s absolutely essential to educate ourselves if we want to try to make amends for our former ruthless exploitation.

Though the movie takes place much later than the start of English colonization of the New World, the importance of financial prosperity seems to have stayed constant.  This emphasis was so strong that it led bankers to lecture a young boy that “[he]‘ll achieve that sense of conquest, as [his] affluence expands”.  The drive for fiscal freedom is what originally led many people to America, among other reasons.  The opportunity to become fantastically wealthy, or at the very least comfortably well off, was enough of a reason to justify starting a new life on another continent.  Whether a capitalist is one of the first settlers of Jamestown or a 19th century, London banker, “when gazing at a graph that shows the profits up, their little cup of joy should overflow!”.

In this way, Indian women were a lot more like modern women. I think that most women expect to work at least for some time in their lives, and this is definitely socially accepted. Even if working only constitutes basic household jobs, like cooking, cleaning, etc, I think it’s necessary that a women, or any member of society for that matter, do something. The view that Europeans had of women was ridiculous.   It made them completely dependent on and subordinate to men.  They became like property, something to be controlled or used.  Although this was a miniature reflection of the pattern of how all of society was laid out at the time, it seems especially unjust that women were discriminated against, as though they were less important or capable than men.  They were even potentially hurting the progress of Europe by restraining women and taking away any chances for them to contribute to society.