The American Identity

1
The American Identity

• Becky Griffith

2
To ponder

• What then is the American, this new man?
• J. Hector St. John de Crevecoeur, 1782

3
Statue of Freedom
4
Statue of Freedom
5
Statue of Freedom
6
By Greenough, 1833
7
By Greenough, 1833
8
Constantino Brumidi's "The Apotheosis of George
Washington" The old General and first President
sits in majesty, flanked on the right by the
Goddess of Liberty and on his left by a winged
figure of Fame sounding a trumpet and holding a
palm frond aloft in a symbol of victory. Thirteen
female figures stand in a semi-circle around
Washington, representing the thirteen original
states. On the outer ring of the canopy, six
allegorical groupings surround him, representing
classical images of agriculture, arts and
sciences, commerce, war, mechanics, and marine.
9
George Washington (Lansdowne portrait) by Gilbert
Stuart, oil on canvas, 1796
10
George Washington by Charles Wilson Peale,
mezzotint, 1780
11

• The American character did not spring full-blown
  from the Mayflower," but "it came out of the
  forests and gained new strength each time it
  touched a frontier."
• Frederick Jackson Turner , 1893

12
Lack of Fatalism

• Louisa May Alcott volunteered as a nurse in a
  Civil War hospital, where she contracted typhoid
  fever and was crippled for life from the mercury
  used to treat her.
• Nonetheless, she kept writing to support her
  family and pay off her father's debts.
• Her most beloved book, Little Women, emerged from
  this difficult period.

13
Energetic Approach to Problem Solving

• Benjamin Franklin was inspired by a firewood
  shortage in Philadelphia to invent a more
  efficient source of heat the Franklin stove.
• His clever marketing campaign for the invention
  displays another American characteristic
  boundless self-confidence.

14
Faith in Economic Growth

• Andrew Carnegie made a fortune in various
  industries before devoting himself full time to
  steel, seeing its limitless potential.
• It was then that he said, "Put all your eggs in
  one basket and then watch that basket!"

15
Dedication to Education

• When Horace Mann was named secretary of the
  Massachusetts State Board of Education in 1837,
  he encountered a school system in decay.
• By the time he left the job 12 years later, he
  had laid the foundation for universal compulsory
  schooling that would be a model for all other
  states.

16
Devotion to Religious Liberty

• The Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, which
  Thomas Jefferson drafted in 1786, was one of his
  proudest accomplishments, which he classed even
  above his two terms as president of the United
  States.
• The statute was the foundation for the First
  Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

17
Belief in Equality

• When Abigail Adams asked her husband, John Adams,
  to "remember the ladies" as he worked to
  establish the new American nation, she was
  speaking partly in jest.
• But her feminist heirs were serious. In the 20th
  century Betty Friedan sought to give women real
  equality and real democratic access, rather than
  the outward legal shell of these rights.

18
Melting Pot Or Tossed Salad
19
Resources

• http//www.teach12.com/ttc/Assets/courseDescriptio
  ns/8540.asp?pcSiteIndex