Founding Myths

by Ray Raphael

  32.Noah Webster, History of the United States (New Haven: Durrie & Peck, 1833), 242.

  33.John Frost, History of the United States of North America (London: Charles Tilt, 1838), 255–257. Although the book was published in London, Frost was an American from Philadelphia.

  34.George Bancroft, History of the United States of America, from the Discovery of the Continent (Boston: Little, Brown, and Company, 1879; first published 1834–1874), 6: 432–484.

  35.I surveyed twenty-three textbooks, published between 1890 and 1955, available at the University of California’s Northern Regional Library Facility in Richmond: D.H. Montgomery, The Leading Fact of American History (Boston: Ginn and Co., 1891); D.H. Montgomery, The Student’s American History (Boston: Ginn and Co., 1897); D.H. Montgomery, The Beginner’s American History (Boston: Ginn and Co., 1899); Edward Eggleston, The New Century History of the United States (New York: American Book Company, 1904); Roscoe Lewis Ashley, American History, for Use in Secondary Schools (New York: Macmillan, 1907); David Saville Muzzey, An American History (Boston: Ginn and Co., 1911); Willis Mason West, American History and Government (Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1913); Henry Eldridge Bourne and Elbert Jay Benton, A History of the United States (Boston: D.C. Heath and Co., 1913); William Backus Guitteau, Our United States: A History (New York: Silver, Burdett and Co., 1919); Reuben Post Halleck, History of Our Country for Higher Grades (New York: American Book Company, 1923); Rolla Tryon and Charles R. Lingley, The American People and Nation (Boston: Ginn and Co., 1927); William A. Hamm, Henry Eldridge Bourne, and Elbert Jay Benton, A Unit History of the United States (Boston: D.C. Heath and Co., 1932); David Saville Muzzey, The United States of America (Boston: Ginn and Co., 1933); David Saville Muzzey, An American History (Boston: Ginn and Co., 1933); David Saville Muzzey, History of the American People (Boston: Ginn and Co., 1934); Harold Underwood Faulkner and Tyler Kepner, America: Its History and People (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1934); Ruth West and Willis Mason West, The Story of Our Country (Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1935); James Truslow Adams and Charles Garrett Vannest, The Record of America (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1935); Harold Rugg and Louise Krueger, The Building of America (Boston: Ginn and Co., 1936); William A. Hamm, The American People (Boston: D.C. Heath and Co., 1942); George Earl Freeland and James Truslow Adams, America’s Progress in Civilization (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1942); Gertrude Hartman, America: Land of Freedom (Boston: D.C. Heath and Co., 1946); Robert E. Riegel and Helen Haugh, United States of America: A History (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1953).

  36.Bourne and Benton, A History of the United States, 220.

  37.West and West, The Story of Our Country, 171.

  38.Thomas A. Bailey, The American Pageant: A History of the Republic (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1956), 116–17, 121.

  39.The thirteen texts surveyed were displayed at the 2002 annual conference of the National Council for Social Studies in Phoenix, Arizona. They included six elementary and middle-school texts: Sterling Stuckey and Linda Kerrigan Salvucci, Call to Freedom (Austin, TX: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 2003); Joyce Appleby et al., The American Republic to 1877 (New York: Glencoe McGraw-Hill, 2003); Michael J. Berson, United States History: Beginnings (Orlando: Harcourt, 2003); James West Davidson, The American Nation: Beginnings through 1877 (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2003); Jesus Garcia et al., Creating America: A History of the United States (Evanston, IL: McDougal Littell, 2007); and Hakim, A History of US. The seven secondary-school texts are: Joyce Appleby et al., The American Vision (New York: Glencoe McGraw-Hill, 2003); Gerald A. Danzer et al., The Americans (Evanston, IL: McDougal Littell, 2003); Daniel J. Boorstin and Brooks Mather Kelley, A History of the United States (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2002); David Goodfield et al, The American Journey: A History of the United States (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2001); John Mack Faragher et al., Out of Many: A History of the American People (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2003); Robert A. Divine et al., America: Past and Present (New York: Longman, 2003); and Paul Boyer, American Nation (Austin, TX: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 2003).

  40.Boyer, American Nation, 129.

  41.Boorstin and Kelley, A History of the United States, 97.

  42.One of these is the latest edition of American Pageant, unchanged in this respect for more than half a century despite new authors on the cover: David M. Kennedy and Lizabeth Cohen, The American Pageant, volume 1, Fifteenth Edition (Boston: Cengage Learning, 2014). Two others share the same authors, with overlapping texts geared for different markets: James West Davidson, Brian DeLay, Christine Leigh Heyrman, Mark H. Lytle, and Michael B. Stoff, U.S.: A Narrative History (New York: McGraw-Hill, 2012), and Experience History: Interpreting America’s Past, vol. 1 (New York: McGraw-Hill, 2011). One short paragraph here reveals how easily authors can convey the global context, even in a brief survey: “It need not have ended at Yorktown, but timing made all the difference. At the end of 1781 and early in 1782, the British army received setbacks in the other theaters of the war: India, the West Indies, and Florida. The French and the Spanish were everywhere in Europe as well, gathering in the English Channel, preparing a major offensive against Gibraltar. The cost of fighting was already enormous. British leaders recognized that the rest of the empire was at stake and set about cutting their losses in America.” (Experience History, 180.) The remaining two texts are Jacqueline Jones, Peter H. Wood, Thomas Borstelmann, Elaine Tyler May, and Vicki L. Ruiz, Created Equal: A History of the United States, vol. 1, Third Edition (New York: Pearson Longman, 2009); and John Mack Faragher, Mari Jo Buhle, Daniel Czitrom, Susan H. Armitage, Out of Many: A History of the American People, Seventh Edition (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson/Prentice Hall, 2012).

  43.Eric Foner, Give Me Liberty! An American History, Third Edition (New York: W.W. Norton, 2011); David Goldfield, Carl Abbott, Virginia DeJohn Anderson, Jo Ann E. Argersinger, Peter H. Argersinger, William L. Barney, Robert M. Weir, The American Journey: A History of the United States, Brief Sixth Edition (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2011); Alan Brinkley, American History: Connecting With the Past, vol. 1, Fourteenth Edition (New York: McGraw-Hill, 2012).

  44.Texts with no mention of British military involvement elsewhere: Mark C. Carnes and John A. Garraty, The American Nation: A History of the United States, Fourteenth Edition (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson, 2012); Kevin M. Schultz, HIST-3, volume 1 (Boston: Cengage Learning, 2014); Nancy Hewitt and Steven F. Lawson, Exploring American History: A Brief Survey with Sources (New York: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2013); James Oakes, Michael McGerr, Jan Ellen Lewis, Nick Cullather, and Jeanne Boydston, Of the People: A History of the United States, vol. 1, Concise Edition (New York: Oxford University Press, 2011); Robert A. Divine, T.H. Breen, George M. Fredrickson, R. Hal Williams, Ariela J. Gross, H.W. Brands, America: Past and Present, Ninth Edition (New York: Pearson/Longman, 2011); H.W. Brands, T.H. Breen, R. Hal Williams, and Ariela J. Gross, American Stories: A History of the United States, Second Edition (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson, 2012); Mary Beth Norton, David M. Katzman, David W. Blight, Howard P. Chudacoff, Fredrik Logevall, Beth Bailey, Thomas Paterson, and William M. Tuttle Jr., A People and a Nation: A History of the United States (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2007); James Henretta, Rebecca Edwards, and Robert Self, America: A Concise History, Fifth Edition (New York: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2012); James Roark, Michael Johnson, Patricia Cline Cohen, Sarah Stage, Alan Lawson, and Susan M. Hartmann, The American Promise: A History of the United States, Fourth Edition (New York: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2009); Michael Schaller, Robert D. Schulzinger, John Bezis-Selfa, Janette Thomas Greenwood, Andrew Kirk, Sarah J. Purcell, and Aaron Sheehan-Dean, American Horizons: U.S. History in a Global Context, Concise Edition (New York: Oxford University Press, 2013); Jennifer D. Keene, Saul Cornell, Edward T. O’Donnell, Visions of America: A History of the United States, Second Edition (Upper Saddle River,
NJ: Pearson, 2013); Joseph R. Conlin, The American Past: A Survey of American History, Tenth Edition (Boston: Wadsworth/Cengage Learning, 2014 ); Carol Berkin, Christopher L. Miller, Robert W. Cherny, James L. Gormly, Douglas Egerton, and Kelly Woestman, Making America: A History of the United States, Brief Sixth Edition (Boston: Wadsworth/Cengage Learning, 2014); Paul S. Boyer, Clifford E. Clark Jr., Karen Halttunen, Joseph F. Kett, Neal Salisbury, Harvard Sitkoff, and Nancy Woloch, The Enduring Vision: A History of the American People, Eighth Edition (Boston: Wadsworth/Cengage Learning, 2014); Alan Brinkley, The Unfinished Nation: A Concise History of the American People, vol. 1, Seventh Edition (New York: McGraw-Hill, 2014).

  45.Conlin, American Past, 162.

  46.Even within the scholarly community, despite so much attention paid to “the Atlantic World,” little attention is paid to how the global context of British military commitments affected that nation’s military performance at the end of the war and its decision not to pursue the war in the rebellious United States after March 1782. One well-received recent book, Andrew Jackson O’Shaughnessy’s The Men Who Lost America: British Leadership, the American Revolution, and the Fate of the Empire (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2013), in 361 pages, devotes but a single paragraph (on page 358) to the impact of Britain’s overreach on its withdrawal from the war with the United States.

  47.Schaller et al., American Horizons: U.S. History in a Global Context, 273.

  48.Hewitt and Lawson, Exploring American History, 181.

  14: March of the American People

  1.Henry S. Commager and Richard B. Morris, The Spirit of ’Seventy-Six: The Story of the American Revolution as Told by the Participants (Indianapolis and New York: Bobbs-Merrill, 1958), 1295.

  2.Gerald A. Danzer, J. Jorge Klor de Alva, Larry S. Krieger, Louis E. Wilson, and Nancy Woloch, The Americans (Evanston, IL: Holt McDougal, 2012), 117.

  3.This phrase comes from Daniel K. Richter, Facing East from Indian Country (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2001).

  4.For a referenced treatment of the internal politics of the Iroquois during the Revolution, see Ray Raphael, People’s History of the American Revolution: How Common People Shaped the Fight for Independence (New York: The New Press, 2001), 193–209.

  5.James H. Merrell, “Declarations of Independence: Indian-White Relations in the New Nation,” in The American Revolution: Its Character and Limits, Jack P. Greene, ed. (New York: New York University Press, 1987), 198.

  6.Frederick Cook, ed., Journals of the Military Expedition of Major General John Sullivan against the Six Nations of Indians in 1779 (Auburn, NY: Knapp, Peck, and Thomson, 1887), 303. This volume contains several firsthand accounts against the “war on vegetables” staged by Sullivan’s forces (112–113, 70–77, 172–175). Sullivan follows contemporary usage when he refers to the Iroquois as “the Five nations,” ignoring the incorporation of the Tuscaroras in the early eighteenth century.

  7.C.A. Weslager, The Delaware Indians: A History (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1972), 305. The full text of the treaty that offered this alluring suggestion is reprinted in Colin G. Calloway, ed., The World Turned Upside Down: Indian Voices from Early America (Boston: St. Martin’s Press, 1994), 190–193.

  8.For a referenced treatment of the Delaware and Shawnee during the Revolution, see Raphael, People’s History of the American Revolution, 209–220.

  9.Raphael, People’s History of the American Revolution, 221–222.

  10.Cited in Tom Hatley, The Dividing Paths: Cherokees and South Carolinians through the Era of Revolution (New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993), 199–200.

  11.William Drayton to Francis Salvador, July 24, 1776, in R. W. Gibbes, ed., Documentary History of the American Revolution (New York: D. Appleton, 1857), 2: 29.

  12.Williamson to Drayton, August 22, 1776, in Gibbes, Documentary History, 2: 32.

  13.John W. Caughey, McGillivray of the Creeks (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1938), 91–92.

  14.A Brief History of the United States for Schools, n.a. (New York: A.A. Barnes and Company, 1875), 128–29; David B. Scott, A School History of the United States (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1874), 195; D.H. Montgomery, The Leading Facts of American History (Boston: Ginn and Co., 1899), 181.

  15.Charles A. Goodrich, A History of the United States of America (Hartford, CT: Barber and Robinson, 1823), 200.

  16.Brief History of the United States (Barnes), 130–31.

  17.Montgomery, Leading Facts of American History, 181. A revised edition of the same text in 1910 elaborated on Clark’s tale. Before “drove the British out,” Montgomery inserted: “He and his little band of stalwart backwoodsmen set out to capture the enemy’s forts (1778–1779). They endured terrible hardships and sufferings in crossing the ‘Drowned Lands’ where the Wabash River, in Indiana, had overflowed the country. Often they had to push forward for miles through ice-cold water waist-deep. But neither hunger, cold, nor exhaustion could force them to turn back. They literally waded to victory.” (163.)

  18.These are the texts available at the University of California’s Northern Regional Library Facility in Richmond: D.H. Montgomery, The Leading Fact of American History (Boston: Ginn and Co., 1891); D.H. Montgomery, The Student’s American History (Boston: Ginn and Co., 1897); D.H. Montgomery, The Beginner’s American History (Boston: Ginn and Co., 1899); Edward Eggleston, The New Century History of the United States (New York: American Book Company, 1904); Roscoe Lewis Ashley, American History, for Use in Secondary Schools (New York: Macmillan, 1907); David Saville Muzzey, An American History (Boston: Ginn and Co., 1911); Willis Mason West, American History and Government (Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1913); Henry Eldridge Bourne and Elbert Jay Benton, A History of the United States (Boston: D.C. Heath and Co., 1913); William Backus Guitteau, Our United States: A History (New York: Silver, Burdett and Co., 1919); Reuben Post Halleck, History of Our Country for Higher Grades (New York: American Book Company, 1923); Rolla Tryon and Charles R. Lingley, The American People and Nation (Boston: Ginn and Co., 1927); William A. Hamm, Henry Eldridge Bourne, and Elbert Jay Benton, A Unit History of the United States (Boston: D.C. Heath and Co., 1932); David Saville Muzzey, The United States of America (Boston: Ginn and Co., 1933); David Saville Muzzey, An American History (Boston: Ginn and Co., 1933); David Saville Muzzey, History of the American People (Boston: Ginn and Co., 1934); Harold Underwood Faulkner and Tyler Kepner, America: Its History and People (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1934); Ruth West and Willis Mason West, The Story of Our Country (Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1935); James Truslow Adams and Charles Garrett Vannest, The Record of America (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1935); Harold Rugg and Louise Krueger, The Building of America (Boston: Ginn and Co., 1936); William A. Hamm, The American People (Boston: D.C. Heath and Co., 1942); George Earl Freeland and James Truslow Adams, America’s Progress in Civilization (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1942); Gertrude Hartman, America: Land of Freedom (Boston: D.C. Heath and Co., 1946); Robert E. Riegel and Helen Haugh, United States of America: A History (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1953). The three that mention Sullivan are Eggleston (1904), Guitteau (1919), and Halleck (1923). The latter two devote only a single sentence; only Eggleston describes the nature of Sullivan’s campaign.

  19.Halleck, History of Our Country, 206.

  20.Muzzey, History of the American People, 145.

  21.Freeland and Adams, America’s Progress in Civilization, 189.

  22.Guitteau, Our United States, 191.

  23.The elementary and middle-school texts: Sterling Stuckey and Linda Kerrigan Salvucci, Call to Freedom (Austin, TX: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 2003); Joyce Appleby et al., The American Republic to 1877 (New York: Glencoe McGraw-Hill, 2003); Michael J. Berson, United States History: Beginnings (Orlando: Harcour
t, 2003); James West Davidson, The American Nation: Beginnings through 1877 (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2003); Jesus Garcia et al., Creating America: A History of the United States; and Hakim, A History of US. The seven secondary-school texts: Joyce Appleby et al., The American Vision (New York, Glencoe McGraw-Hill, 2003); Gerald A. Danzer et al., The Americans (Evanston, IL: McDougal Littell, 2003); Daniel J. Boorstin and Brooks Mather Kelley, A History of the United States (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2002); David Goodfield et al., The American Journey: A History of the United States (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2001); John Mack Faragher et al., Out of Many: A History of the American People (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2003); Robert A. Divine et al., America: Past and Present (New York: Longman, 2003); and Paul Boyer, American Nation (Austin, TX: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 2003).

  Of three college texts surveyed at that time, all described the Sullivan campaign in gruesome detail, while only one mentioned the frontier heroics of George Rogers Clark. (James L. Roark et al., The American Promise: A History of the United States [Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2002]; Gary B. Nash and Julie Roy Jeffrey, The American People: Creating a Nation and a Society [New York: Addison Wesley, 2001]; and Mary Beth Norton et al., A People and a Nation: A History of the United States [Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1990].) These texts did not sugarcoat the truth. According to The American Promise, “Continental army troops under the command of General John Sullivan carried out a planned campaign of terror and destruction. . . . Forty well-established Indian towns met with total destruction; the soldiers looted and torched the dwellings, then burned cornfields and fruit orchards. In a few towns women and children were slaughtered.” (205.) Such honesty was admirable and it has continued in current college texts, but it also gives cause for wonder: If this is what really happened, why do only twenty-year-olds who take history in college learn about it? We certainly expect German children to learn about the Holocaust long before they enter the university, so why are American children in such need of protection?