Founding Myths

by Ray Raphael

  Morris, Lewis, 282, 390n5

  Morris, Richard B., 65, 92, 263–64

  Morris, Robert, 160, 164–65, 365n9

  Morristown and “The Hard Winter” (1779–80), 107–13, 117–18, 266, 353n26

  Morristown National Historical Park, 353n36

  Moultrie, William, 192

  Mudd, Roger, 162–63

  Munroe, William, 14, 15, 19

  Murray, Charles, 364–65n7

  Muzzey, David Saville, 274

  Napoleonic Wars, 56

  narrative fallacies, 300–302

  A Narrative of the Excursion and Ravages of the King’s Troops, 12, 76

  National Council for Social Studies, 2002 conference, 259–60, 274, 377n31, 383n39

  Native Americans. See Indians

  NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization), 259

  navigation laws, 153, 363n25

  The Negro in Our History (Woodson), 213

  The Negro in the American Rebellion (Brown), 376n20

  The Negro in the American Revolution (Quarles), 214–15, 216

  Nell, William, 210–11, 376n20

  Nelson, Josiah, 19

  New Hampshire, 20, 25, 82, 86, 130, 362n17; Federal Convention delegation and Great Compromise debates, 362n14

  New Jersey: Federal Convention delegation and Great Compromise debates, 147–48. See also Morristown and “The Hard Winter” (1779–80)

  New Jersey Brigade, 112, 353n36

  New Jersey Turnpike, 318

  “A New Touch on the Times” (poem), 321–22

  New York: and the Hard Winter, 108–9; local declaration of independence, 357n15

  “Newburg Conspiracy,” 105

  Newman, Robert, 18

  North, Lord Frederick, 87–88, 244, 254, 261

  North Carolina: brutality of the Revolution in the South, 228–31; Federal Convention delegation and Great Compromise debates, 362n14; and the Hard Winter, 108; Waxhaws incident, 190–91, 228–29

  Northwest Ordinance (1787), 275–77

  Old North Church (Boston), 9, 11, 20, 24

  Old South Meeting House (Boston), 35, 335n22

  Oliver, Andrew, 33–34

  Oliver, Peter, 30–32, 37, 334n5

  Olsen, Eric P., 353n36

  Oneida Indians, 265–66

  Onondaga Indians, 265–66

  oral tradition and American Revolution, 2–3, 292

  Oriskany, New York, 265

  Orne, Azor, 18–19

  O’Shaughnessy, Andrew Jackson, 385n46

  Otis, James, Jr., 30–32, 285, 303

  Otis, James, Sr., 31

  pacifists, 194, 246

  Paine, Thomas, 38, 137–38, 300, 304, 360n46

  Parker, James, 180–81

  Parkman, Breck, 82

  Paterson, William, 147–48

  The Patriot (film), 205–9, 225–31; myth of British brutality, 225–31, 236–37; myth of patriotic slaves, 205, 208–9, 219; and slaves in the Revolutionary War, 205–9

  Patriotic Sons of America, 64

  patriotism and founding myths, 5–6, 144, 178, 286, 294, 330n7

  Patriots: The Men Who Started the American Revolution (Langguth), 27, 244, 372n27

  Paul Revere and the World He Lived In (Forbes), 22

  Paul Revere’s Ride (Fischer), 22

  “Paul Revere’s Ride” (Longfellow), 9–11, 15–25, 331n28, 395n2

  Payne, Edward, 44

  Peckham, Howard, 191, 248, 351n2, 354n37

  Pennsylvania: Federal Convention delegation and Great Compromise debates, 145–50, 362n14; and Molly Pitcher story, 51, 53, 61–67, 344n33, 345n42; Philadelphia winter of 1777–1778, 107–8, 352n21; termination of slavery in, 218

  Pennsylvania Gazette, 126

  Pennsylvania Line, 353n36

  Pennsylvania militia, 267

  Pennsylvania State House, 142, 155. See also Federal Convention (1787)

  People’s History of the American Revolution (Raphael), 35, 340n8

  people’s revolution. See Massachusetts Revolution of 1774

  Peters, Thomas, 221, 378n45

  Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 107–8, 352n21. See also Federal Convention (1787)

  Philipsburg Proclamation, 218

  Phillips, Wendell, 210

  Pickering, Timothy, 97, 359n32

  Pictorial Field-Book of the Revolution (Lossing), 15, 210, 292

  Pierce, William, 230

  Pinckney, Charles, 152–53, 211

  Pinckney, Charles Cotesworth, 152

  Pitcher, Moll Dimond, 59–60, 343n26

  Pitcher, Molly, 4–5, 49–71, 50, 312, 315, 317–18; artists and, 50, 51–52, 60, 340n8; Battle of Monmouth, 49–68, 317–18, 341n14, 342nn20–21, 343n29, 344n33; “Captain Molly” name and legend, 53–60, 64–65, 69–71, 342n20, 343n26, 345n42; and Carlisle, Pennsylvania, 51, 53, 61–67, 344n33, 345n42; “Dirty Kate,” 54; evolution of legend, 53–69, 341n14, 343n29; and female “camp followers,” 51, 53–56, 60, 66, 69–70, 341n14; historians and, 64–70, 344n33, 346n48; Internet and legend of, 68–69, 317–18, 347n54; “Maid of Saragossa,” 56–57, 63; Margaret Corbin, 54, 64–65, 67, 69; Mary Hays McCauley, 51, 61–70, 317–18, 344n33, 345n42, 346n48; Moll Dimond Pitcher, 59–60, 343n26; newspaper accounts, 57, 342nn20–21; textbooks, 51–53, 67–69, 312, 340n7

  Pitt, William, the Younger, 255

  Plymouth, Massachusetts, 83

  Popular Cyclopedia of History, 57

  popular sovereignty, 92–93, 165–70, 263, 283, 297; Adams and, 167–70; Declaration of Independence, 125; England’s Glorious Revolution, 40

  Portsmouth, New Hampshire, 25

  Portsmouth Journal of Literature and Politics, 59

  post-Yorktown War. See Indians; westward expansion; Yorktown, British defeat at

  “Powder Alarm,” 81

  Prescott, Samuel, 15, 20, 23, 312–13, 332n31, 333n33

  Prescott, William, 189, 193–94, 199–200, 372n25, 372n27, 373n28

  presidential selection and the electoral college, 149–50, 363n21

  Progressive-era historians, 22, 92, 144, 236, 375–76n19

  Pulling, John, 18

  Putnam, Israel: and Battle of Bunker Hill, 158, 198–200, 371n22, 372n25, 372n27, 373n28; as Founding Father, 158

  Putnam, Rufus, 395n6

  Pybus, Cassandra, 221, 373n3

  Pyle, Howard, 122

  Quakers, 103

  Quarles, Benjamin, 214–15, 216, 374–75n14, 376n28

  Quincy, Josiah, 46, 337–38n42

  Ramsay, David, 284–85, 289, 329n3; on Samuel Adams, 41; on black patriots and the Revolution, 210, 376n21; on brutality of the Revolution in the South, 232, 237; on Bunker Hill, 197–98; on campaign against Cherokees, 268; on Declaration of Independence, 130, 131; on Massachusetts Revolution, 90; on Paul Revere’s ride, 12; on post-Yorktown War, 257; on Valley Forge winter, 114, 115–16

  Rand, Elizabeth, 20

  Randolph, Edmund, 147–48, 363n25

  ratification debates, 131, 143, 369n16

  Read, George, 144–45, 160

  Reading, Massachusetts, 20

  Reconstruction (post-Civil War), 143, 211

  Red Dawn at Lexington (Birnbaum), 34, 372n27

  Redcoats. See British brutality, myth of

  Reed, Joseph, 108

  Regnier, Claude, 204

  Regulators, 94, 303–4, 395n8

  representation debates and small-state and large-state divide, 144–50, 361n7, 362n14, 362n17, 363n20

  Revere, Paul, 157; capture
and detention of, 11–12, 14; death of, 14. See also Revere, Paul, ride of

  Revere, Paul, ride of, 4, 9–26, 88–89, 296, 312–13; Adams and, 11, 13, 18, 89, 296; folklore of, 10–15; historians and legend, 13–15, 17–21, 22, 333n33; Longfellow and, 4, 9–11, 15–25, 331n28, 395n2; textbooks, 21–24, 312–13, 331n28, 332n32, 333n35

  “revolution,” definitions of, 40, 291–92, 348n10

  Richmond, Virginia, 175

  Rockingham, Lord, 245

  Rodat, Robert, 208, 227

  Ross, Betsy, 49, 343n29

  Ross, George, 282

  Rotch, Francis, 35, 335n22, 335n24

  Rowe, John, 44

  Rush, Benjamin, 167, 282

  Rush, Richard, 116

  Russell, Francis, 373n28

  Russia, 252

  Rutledge, John, 153

  Salem, Massachusetts, 83–84, 87

  Salem, Peter, 217, 221

  Salisbury, Stephen, 80

  Sam Adams: Pioneer in Propaganda (Miller), 41–42

  Sampson, Deborah, 49, 341n10

  Sanderson, Elijah, 19

  Sanderson, John, 159, 289

  Saratoga, Battle of, 112, 250, 315

  Scammell, Alexander, 374–75n14

  Schaumann, Merri Lou, 343n21

  Scott, Deborah, 228

  SEATO (Southeast Asia Treaty Organization), 259

  Second Continental Congress, 125. See also Continental Congress

  Second Treatise on Government (Locke), 125, 355n3

  Seneca Indians, 265–66, 272

  Seven Years’ War, 252. See also French and Indian War

  Shakers, 194

  Shawnee Indians, 266–67

  Shays, Daniel, 303–4, 395n6

  Shays’ Rebellion, 40, 93–94, 303–4

  Shelby, Evan, 237

  Shelby, Isaac, 231

  Sherman, Roger, 159–60

  “shot heard ’round the world,” 4, 75–77, 84, 87, 94–95, 249, 301. See also Lexington, Battle of

  Shy, John, 97, 102, 279, 377n30

  Sierra Leone, 221, 222–23

  Sketches of the Life and Character of Patrick Henry (Wirt), 178

  slave importation debate, 151–53, 369n16

  slaves and slavery, 205–23; actual experiences in the Revolution and post-War, 209; Continental Congress, 206–8, 217, 365n8; Dunmore’s proclamation of freedom, 205, 211, 212–13, 216–18; enslaved people who fled to the British, 205, 210–13, 216–21, 373n3–213, 376n21; Federal Convention and slave importation debate, 151–53, 369n16; Federal Convention and three-fifths compromise, 150–53, 363n22; Founders as slave owners/defenders, 134–37, 151–53, 204, 207–8, 215–17, 221–23; Henry and, 368n14, 369–70n16; historians on, 210–15, 374n14, 375n19, 376nn20–21; Jefferson and, 134–37, 359n41, 373n3, 393–94n2; Lincoln and, 134–37; Maroon communities, 221; myth of patriotic slaves, 205–23; Northern/Southern differences in story of, 215–20, 377n30; notions of equality in the Declaration, 130–31, 134–37, 359n40; The Patriot (film), 205–9, 218–19; textbooks, 212, 216–19, 311, 377n31, 378n45; Virginia uprisings, 181–84. See also black patriots, myth of

  Smith, James, 160, 282

  Smithsonian Institution, 209, 306

  Snowden, Richard, 91

  Sons of Liberty, 46, 339n58

  South, Revolutionary War in: as civil war, 228–39, 248, 258; Indian resistance, 267–69

  South Carolina: brutality of Revolution in, 229, 239; Federal Convention delegation, 152–53, 362n14; Great Compromise debates, 362n14; and patriot campaigns against Indians, 268; slavery, 152–53, 205–9, 211, 373n3; three-fifths compromise, 152–53

  Soviet Bloc, 259

  Soviet Union, 179

  Spain and the American Revolution, 250–51, 389n32

  Sparks, Jared, 290, 293

  Springfield, Massachusetts, 83, 94

  St. Andrews Lodge of Freemasons, 46

  St. Thomas Jenifer, Daniel of, 160

  Stamp Act, 184–85, 303

  Stamp Act riots, 31, 33–34, 45, 334n16

  Stearns, Junius Brutus, 204

  Steuben, Baron Friedrich Wilhelm von, 103, 112

  Stevens, Elisha, 192

  Stewart, Charles, 180–81

  Stiles, Eb., 13

  Stiles, Ezra, 130

  Stoneham, Massachusetts, 20

  Stowe, Harriet Beecher, 210

  Stryker, William, 64, 341n14

  Stuart, Henry, 267–68

  Sullivan, John, 265–66, 272–75, 386n6, 388n34, 389n36

  Summary View of the Rights of British American (Jefferson), 127–28

  Sumner, George, 9

  Sumter, Thomas (the “Gamecock”), 159, 207, 239, 288–89

  Swain, Rev. George, 62

  Sylvester, Richard, 32–33, 42, 317, 334n12

  Tarleton, Banastre: and brutal civil war in the South, 227–28, 234, 237, 238, 239; and Waxhaws massacre, 190–91, 228–29, 379n2

  Taunton, Massachusetts, 83

  Taylor, George, 282

  testing, standardized, 316–17

  Tewksbury, Massachusetts, 19–20

  textbooks. See history textbooks

  Thacher, James, 341n15

  They Called Her Molly Pitcher, 69, 347n54

  Thompson, D. W., 343n21, 344n33

  Thomson, Charles, 3–4, 282, 329n3

  Thornton, Matthew, 282, 390n5

  three-fifths compromise, 150–53, 363n22

  Tilden, Samuel, 363n21

  Topps American Heritage Heroes series, 69

  Tories, 307; and Samuel Adams, 30–33, 42, 44, 47; and brutality of the Revolution in the South, 229–39; and Waxhaws massacre, 229

  Treaty of Paris (1783), 222, 266, 269–71, 275, 276

  Trull, Captain John, 19–20

  Trumbull, John, 3, 27–29, 133, 156, 200–201, 242; The Death of General Warren at the Battle of Bunker’s Hill, 27–29, 200–201; Declaration of Independence, 4 July 1776, 3, 329n2

  Tucker, St. George, 178–80, 230

  Tudor, William, 194

  Tufts, Samuel, 20

  Tuscarora Indians, 265

  Underground Railroad, 221

  United Nations, 259

  U.S. History in a Global Context (Oxford University Press), 261

  Valley Forge, winter at, 99–120, 326; battlefield casualties, 101, 351n2; commemorations, 118; Continental Army, 91–120; deaths from disease, 113; desertions, 104–6, 109; and Hard Winter in Morristown, 107–13, 117, 266, 353n36; historians and, 114–19, 354n49; mutinies and other resistance, 104–7; patient suffering, 101, 105, 112–13, 114–20, 285, 289; pillaging, 103–4, 106; temperatures, 107–8, 352n21, 353n24; textbook histories, 99, 116–17, 118–19; and true hardships, 101–7, 111–17; Washington and myth of, 113–14

  Valley Forge National Historical Park, 118

  Vermont, 130, 218

  veterans of the Revolutionary War, 116, 289

  veto, executive, 39, 300

  Vietnam War, 170, 248

  Vincennes, Battle of, 274

  Virginia: Dunmore and Revolution in, 181–84; Federal Convention delegation, 144–50, 152–53, 362n14; Great Compromise debates, 144–50, 362n14; Hard Winter in, 108; and Massachusetts Revolution, 91, 347n9; planters, 347n9; slavery, 152–53, 181–84, 369n16, 373n3, 394n2; three-fifths compromise, 152–53

  Virginia Convention, 126, 131, 175–77, 356n8; Henry’s “liberty or death” speech, 4, 131, 175–81, 186–87, 296, 314

  Virginia Declaration of Rights
, 124, 125–29, 130–31, 313, 356n8, 359n40, 369n16

  Virginia House of Burgesses, 184–85, 347n9

  Virginia’s Monthly Magazine and Literary Journal, 116

  visual arts and the American Revolution, 2–3; Samuel Adams, 28; Battle of Bunker Hill, 188, 200–201; Battle of Lexington, 74; Cornwallis’s surrender at Yorktown, 242; Declaration of Independence signing, 133, 156; Fourth of July activities, 280; Jefferson and Declaration of Independence, 122, 133; Life of George Washington the Farmer, 204; Molly Pitcher, 50, 50, 51–52, 60, 340n8; Paul Revere’s Ride, 8; Washington and his slaves, 204; Washington Crossing the Delaware, xii, 3; westward expansion, 262; winter at Valley Forge, 100

  Wade, Benjamin, 136

  Waldo, Albigence, 55, 341nn14–15

  Waln, Robert, 159

  War of 1812, 116, 289

  Warren, James, 39, 46, 88–89, 285

  Warren, James Otis, 285

  Warren, Joseph, 158; and Samuel Adams, 27–29, 37–38; and Massachusetts Revolution, 88, 90, 91; and Paul Revere’s ride, 11–13, 17–18, 333n33

  Warren, Mercy Otis, 284–85; on Samuel Adams, 47–48; on brutality of the Revolutionary War, 233–34, 237; on Bunker Hill, 198; on Jefferson and Declaration of Independence, 132, 358n24; on the Massachusetts Revolution, 89, 90; on post-Yorktown War and global context, 257; on Valley Forge winter, 114–15

  Washington, George: and black soldiers, 206–8, 217; and British offers of peace, 245–46; on the Constitution, 154; and Continental Army, 70, 104–14, 206–8, 217, 243–49, 307, 354n39, 397–98n13; Federal Convention debates, 147, 154; and female camp followers, 51, 70; as Founding Father, 157, 158, 161, 170, 221; and Great Compromise, 147; Hard Winter in Morristown, 107–13, 353n36; and Molly Pitcher story, 51, 53, 58, 67, 69; post-Yorktown War, 243–49, 381n11, 381n13; slave ownership, 204, 207–8, 221–23; and Sullivan’s campaign against the Indians, 389n36; and Valley Forge myth, 113–14; Weems’s biography, 116, 287–88

  Washington, Harry, 221–23, 378n45

  Watertown, Massachusetts, 64, 87

  Watson, Abraham, 18

  Waxhaws incident, 190–91, 228–29, 379n2

  Wayne, “Mad Anthony,” 271, 345n33

  Webster, Daniel, 367n22

  Webster, Noah, 4, 199, 257, 290

  Weems, Mason Locke, 286–88; as early popular historian, 286–88, 392n25; on Israel Putnam and Battle of Bunker Hill, 198–99, 371n22; on post-Yorktown War, 257; on Valley Forge winter, 116, 119; Washington biography, 116, 287–88