What is an American?

Hi, I'm Dr Zara Anders Hansen,

an associate professor of history and art history at the University of Delaware.

And this lecture series is titled Continuity and Change

in American Cultural History from 17 54 to 1800.

Welcome to lecture one. What is an American?

We're looking at continuity and change in

American cultural history from 17 54 to 1800

I thought it made sense to start with a little bit of a discussion of the chronology,

because these are two years that are defined

by big political rather than cultural events.

The lectures are bookended by the start of the seven years War,

also called the French and Indian War in 17 54 and the so called

revolution of 1800 what historians often used

to call the presidential election of 1800.

Now the starting date of 17 54 is important as

the start date of what was the first truly global war

fought between 17 54 and 63 in India, the Caribbean

as well as Europe and North America,

a war from which Britain,

with the help of their American colonial and indigenous allies,

emerged victorious over the French redrawing the map of North America,

making Britain the largest empire.

Territorially speaking, the world had ever seen

that success, though ironically enough,

would be the beginning of the end of Britain's empire

in what would become the United States of America,

a new nation that in 1800 proved to itself and the rest of the world that it looked to

have staying power when it witnessed the first successful

transfer of power between political

parties peacefully without military intervention

that with a lot of nasty campaigning

transition between the federalist presidency of John Adams

to the Democratic Republican one of Thomas Jefferson.

Now, in between these two dates of 17 54 and 1800 of course,

was the American Revolution,

which was undeniably a watershed moment in American history.

But here's the thing.

Cultural history does not always align neatly

with such political chronologies and hear a definition

of culture might help us explain why I'm

going to turn to everyone's favourite dictionary,

the Merriam Webster Dictionary, to look at its definition of culture.

And they defined culture as and I quote the customary beliefs,

social forms and material traits of a racial, religious or social group

the characteristic features of everyday existence,

such as diversions or a way of life shared by people in a place or time.

And they give us two examples. Popular culture or Southern culture.

Now, if you think about this definition,

I think it helps explain why often politics change more quickly than cultures do.

And cultures tend to have some staying power,

sometimes like when revolutions happen.

Historical events are so momentous that they changed the very fabric,

the culture of a society.

But sometimes they really don't because culture to put it simply,

is the way we make sense of our world.

And sometimes that changes with political events, and sometimes it doesn't

so. Throughout these lectures, I'm going to be discussing

some things that change and some things that remain the same

or there to really through lines throughout the time period.

That might shift slightly with political events but still retain

some familiarity to the time. Before

doing cultural history forces historians to go beyond documents

alone as a way to understand the past,

you really need to engage in a different sort of methodology than

you do if you're just looking at political events for example,

you have to consider objects.

Look at things like clothing, architecture, portraits,

music and food as markers of a shared history and culture.

What's great about this is that cultural history opens up a past

that is not just limited to the for the most part,

um,

literate white men who left behind documentary evidence in the

end of the second half of the 18th century.

It also opens up a past that is not just defined

by political events like those that book and our lectures chronology,

although in this case, the American Revolution,

its causes course in aftermath undeniably affected American culture a great deal.

But just how much of a watershed it was in terms of American cultural history

is a matter that's been hotly debated among historians for quite some time,

and I don't think the question's going away anytime soon.

But essentially, the question we're going to be dealing with today,

in different thematic ways, is when it comes to American cultural history.

How revolutionary was the American Revolution?

Now the answer to that question partly depends upon how

you define American culture before the revolution and to get it

that we need to discuss a question of great interest to

those living in the world between 17 54 and 1800.

And that is what is an American

The answer to this question has changed over time,

and one of the most famous answers to this

question was posed by a French writer between 17 70

17 78 and his thoughts were published in 17 82.

Now his real name was Michel Jean Jean Jacques

Coeur, but he published as James Hector ST John Cracker Cracker lived in New York,

where he bought a farm after the end of the seven years

slash French and Indian War.

And he loved America so much that he named his first child

America.

His family's life was disrupted like many by the revolution,

and he was not a patriot.

Despite his love for America.

He joined loyalist refugees in New York City,

where he was imprisoned by the British as a suspected spy.

Understandably, after that experience, he went back to his homeland of France,

where he wrote a series of letters about America that were published.

Um, soon after the war,

the most famous of credit cards letters is the one that gives this lecture its title.

What is an American?

This was long considered one of the classic statements defining the American

and increase scores vision.

The American was an individualistic, self sufficient, hard working person.

No, a man of the land. And let us be clear. He did mean men

free to pursue an early version of what we eventually came to call the American dream

and, in the process,

ultimately proving himself and his country superior to the old world.

At its best craft course,

American was sort of an idealised mix of Benjamin

Franklin's self made man and Thomas Jefferson's yeoman farmer.

So what was it that made the American man in

his culture so full of potential and correct course eyes?

I'll let him tell you.

What, then, is the American this new man?

He's either a European or the descendant of European.

Hence that strange mixture of blood, which you will find in no other country.

I could point out to you a man whose

grandfather was an Englishman whose wife was Dutch,

whose son married a French woman and whose present

four sons have now four wives of different nations.

He is an American who, leaving behind him all his ancient prejudices and manners,

receives new ones from the new mode of life. He's a embraced

the new government he obeys, and the new rank he holds.

He becomes an American by being received in the broad lap of our great alma mater.

Here,

individuals of all nations are melted into a new race of men whose

labours and posterity will one day cause great changes in the world.

So, in other words, according to crave cure,

it was people of diverse national and religious backgrounds

coming together in this one particular environment.

This new place, this America that created what he called quote a new race of men.

And I think you can see the through line here that this is the

germ of what later cultural commentators would

call the great American melting pot.

So according to crave core, who asked the question, whence came all these people?

He found them all in Europe.

He put it like this.

They're a mixture of English, Scotch, Irish, French, Dutch,

Germans and Swedes from this promiscuous breed.

That race, now called Americans, have arisen.

Now, how accurate was this assessment?

Let's use another primary source from the time period to assess.

And here we're going to use something in the

wheelhouse of cultural history and turn to a portrait.

And what we're going to talk about is a portrait of John Potter and his family,

and they lived in Newport, Rhode Island, a village nearby

in 17 40. They have their portrait painted by an unknown.

What we would call today folk artist.

Um, as you can see, it's It's a highly untutored, um,

somewhat crude artistic rendering,

but they're a couple of really interesting features about this portrait that I

think give us an alternate viewpoint to correct course of what is an American

This portrait was painted and put above the

over mantel of the fireplace in their home

in Rhode Island and includes not just John Potter,

who's a white settler of English extraction, but also three women in his family,

including his wife and two other female relatives.

And you'll also see crouched down in the corner,

a young black servant as they would have referred to him at the time.

Undoubtedly an enslaved person, though

now what you see is the four white people gathered around a tea table,

and they are taking tea.

They're sitting around the oval T table,

which is decorated with a blue and white porcelain tea, set a silver teapot on it,

and the young black boy is in front of them,

as if he has just served or is about to serve them.

Now, a couple points about this that, I think,

show you that crave cores definition of

what is an American was vastly oversimplified.

The first is that the world in which these Newport

Rhode Islanders inhabit is one that's defined by global trade.

The teeth from India, the tea sets from China. Perhaps the silver might be from Peru.

The fabric is probably from the England and England and the

Netherlands for the white people and for the black boy.

He's probably wearing German made fabric called Osterberg,

which was especially marketed to enslaved people because it was so durable, um,

and rough, unlike the fine linens and um,

and cottons and perhaps silks that the white family wears.

Meanwhile, the table, the house and the painting itself were all made in America

and the enslaved boy, of course, whether directly or a few generations,

one or two or more removed is from Africa

Now. John Potter was a wealthy South Kingston planter, South Kingston being

a Rhode Island town.

And when this over Mantle was removed from his home,

the home was in a place that was called McCain took,

And that is a village that takes its name

from a Native American word meaning look out.

And the Narragansett used to make a summer encampment at this location before

the land was sold to white colonists as part of a purchase.

So, in other words,

John Potter's over mantel portrait adds quite a few people and

cultures and things that were missing in crave course assessment.

Women,

for starters and throughout this lecture series will

discuss how the importance of women as consumers

and producers and makers and teachers of culture

can't really be overestimated in this time period.

We also see people and goods from Africa, from Asia,

from South America and indigenous to America.

In other words, contrary to CREB course model of a self reliant culture, um,

mostly modelled and taken from European, um, European origins.

American culture, as you see in this portrait,

has always been enmeshed in global trade.

So We've been buying things made in China for quite a time,

and it created.

It was created not just by multiple European cultures, but by Asian,

South American and African ones, too.

In the second half of the 18th century,

Americans and American culture were actually one of the most diverse in the world.