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BrainPOP - Animated Educational Site for Kids - Science, Social Studies, English, Math, Arts & Music, Health, and Technology

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Encyclopedia entry

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Welcome to Britannica School , a safe, up-to-date, and age-appropriate information resource for Elementary, Middle, and High School.

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About Gale In Context: Biography

Gale In Context: Biography is an engaging online experience for those seeking contextual information on the world's most influential people. Biography merges Gale's authoritative reference content with periodicals and multimedia organized into a user-friendly portal experience while allowing users to search for people based on name, occupation, nationality, ethnicity, birth/death dates and places, or gender as well as keyword and full text.

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About Gale In Context: Biography Gale In Context: Biography is an engaging online experience for those seeking contextual information on the world's most influential people. Biography merges Gale's authoritative reference content with periodicals and multimedia organized into a user-friendly portal experience while allowing users to search for people based on name, occupation, nationality, ethnicity, birth/death dates and places, or gender as well as keyword and full text.

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BrainPOP - Animated Educational Site for Kids - Science, Social Studies, English, Math, Arts & Music, Health, and Technology

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Harriet Tubman - Abolition - Facts About Harriet Tubman - Flocabulary

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Teach the biography of courageous abolitionist Harriet Tubman with Flocabulary’s educational rap song and activities.

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Reconstruction - Post Civil War - Flocabulary

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What was life like in the US after the Civil War? Learn about Reconstruction with this educational hip-hop song and lesson resources from Flocabulary.

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Sortify: World-Changing Women - GameUp - BrainPOP.

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In this free history game, students demonstrated an understanding of the framework of women's history by sorting world-changing women like Elizabeth I, Rosa Parks, Hillary Clinton, and Marie Curie into self-selected categories.

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George Washington - George Washington Video - George Washington Farewell Address - Flocabulary

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Table of Contents

1. Betsy Ross: An Early American Life

2. The Story of the Betsy Ross Flag

3. Betsy Ross: Later Life, Work and Children

4. Betsy Ross: A Legacy Unfurled

Perhaps the best-known figure from the American Revolutionary era who wasn't a president, general or statesman, Betsy Ross (1752-1836) became a patriotic icon in the late 19th century when stories surfaced that she had sewn the first "stars and stripes" U.S. flag in 1776. Though that story is likely apocryphal, Ross is known to have sewn flags during the Revolutionary War.

Betsy Ross: An Early American Life

Elizabeth Griscom was born on January 1, 1752, in Gloucester City, New Jersey. She was the eighth of 17 children. Her parents, Rebecca James Griscom and Samuel Griscom were both Quakers. The daughter of generations of craftsmen (her father was a house carpenter), young Betsy attended a Quaker school and was then apprenticed to William Webster, an upholsterer. In Webster's workshop, she learned to sew mattresses, chair covers and window blinds.

Did you know? An 1871 pamphlet enthusiastically not only credited Betsy Ross for designing the first U.S. flag, but for coming up with the name "United States of America" and writing a hymn that was the basis for the French anthem "La Marseillaise." (There is no evidence to support either of those claims.)

In 1773, at age 21, Betsy crossed the river to New Jersey to elope with John Ross, a fellow apprentice of Webster's and the son of an Episcopal rector-a double act of defiance that got her expelled from the Quaker church. The Rosses started their own upholstery shop, and John joined the militia. He died after barely two years of marriage. Though family legend would attribute John's death to a gunpowder explosion, illness is a more likely culprit.

The Story of the Betsy Ross Flag

In the summer of 1776 (or possibly 1777) Betsy Ross, newly widowed, is said to have received a visit from General George Washington regarding a design for a flag for the new nation. Washington and the Continental Congress had come up with the basic layout, but, according to legend, Betsy allegedly finalized the design, arguing for stars with five points (Washington had suggested six) because the cloth could be folded and cut out with a single snip.

The tale of Washington's visit to Ross was first made public in 1870, nearly a century later, by Betsy Ross's grandson. However, the flag's design was not fixed until later than 1776 or 1777. Charles Wilson Peale's 1779 painting of George Washington following the 1777 Battle of Princeton features a flag with six-pointed stars.

Betsy Ross was making flags around that time-a receipt shows that the Pennsylvania State Navy Board paid her 15 pounds for sewing ship's standards. But similar receipts exist for Philadelphia seamstresses Margaret Manning (from as early as 1775), Cornelia Bridges (1776) and Rebecca Young, whose daughter Mary Pickersgill would sew the mammoth flag that later inspired Francis Scott Key to write " The Star-Spangled Banner."

Betsy Ross: Later Life, Work and Children

In June 1777, Betsy married Joseph Ashburn, a sailor, with whom she had two daughters. In 1782 Ashburn was apprehended while working as a privateer in the West Indies and died in a British prison. A year later, Betsy married John Claypoole, a man who had grown up with her in Philadelphia's Quaker community and had been imprisoned in England with Ashburn. A few months after their wedding, the Treaty of Paris was signed, ending the Revolutionary War. They went on to have five daughters.

Over the next decades, Betsy Claypoole and her daughters sewed upholstery and made flags, banners and standards for the new nation. In 1810 she made six 18-by-24-foot garrison flags to be sent to New Orleans; the next year she made 27 flags for the Indian Department. She spent her last decade in quiet retirement, her vision failing, and died in 1836, at age 84.

Betsy Ross: A Legacy Unfurled

The records of the U.S. flag's origins are fragmentary in part because at the time Americans were indifferent to flags as national relics. "The Star-Spangled Banner" was written in 1812 but did not become popular until the 1840s. As the 1876 U.S. Centennial approached, enthusiasm for the flag increased.

It was in that environment, in 1870, that Betsy Claypoole's grandson William Canby presented the family tale to the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. At the time several claims on the first flag were surfacing, ranging from other Philadelphia seamstresses to a New Hampshire quilting bee said to have fashioned the banner out of cut-up gowns.

Most such stories, however wishfully sourced, expressed a national desire for symbols of female Revolutionary patriotism, of women materially supporting their fighting men and (just perhaps) showing George Washington a better way to make a star.

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Betsy Ross (1752-1836) became a patriotic icon in the late 19th century when stories surfaced that she had sewn the first "stars and stripes" U.S. flag in 1776. Though that story is likely apocryphal, Ross is known to have sewn flags during the Revolutionary War.

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Kids learn about the Boston Tea Party major event in the American Revolutionary War.

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Kids learn about The United States Flag; history and meaning.

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Copyright © 2018 Discovery Education. All rights reserved. Discovery Education is a subsidiary of Discovery Communications, LLC.

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Kids learn about Benjamin Franklin's biography. Inventor, scientist, statesman, and Founding Father of the United States.

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Learn about the biography of Molly Pitcher including her real name, folklore, where the name came from, Mary Ludwig Hays, Margaret Corbin, and interesting facts.

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Learn about the biography of Martha Washington including her early life, first marriage, children, George Washington, Valley Forge, fun facts, and as the first First Lady.

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George Washington was the 1st president of the United States. Learn about his biography and life story.

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Kids learn about the biography of Abigail Adams, First Lady with John Adams and human rights activist. Mother of John Quincy.

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Kids learn about the biography of Clara Barton, Civil War nurse who founded the American Red Cross.

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Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States. Learn about his biography, the Civil War, and his life story.

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Kids learn about the biography of Harriet Beecher Stowe, woman who wrote about the horrors of slavery before the Civil War.

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Kids learn about the biography of Harriet Tubman, leader in the Underground Railroad who led many of the enslaved to freedom.

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Kids learn about the biography of Pocahontas, Native American princess who helped save Captain John Smith and the settlers of Jamestown. She later married John Rolfe and moved to England.

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Thomas Jefferson was the 3rd president of the United States. Learn about his biography and life story.

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Jefferson vs Hamilton - Social Studies - Alexander Hamilton vs Thomas Jefferson - Flocabulary

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Teach or review the legacies of Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton with Flocabulary's educational rap video and lesson plan.

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Kids learn about the California Gold Rush from the Old West. Thousands of people move to the west to search for gold and strike it rich.

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Kids learn about the biography and life of American frontier explorer Daniel Boone. He explored Kentucky and the Cumberland Gap.

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Kids learn about the biography of Sam Houston including his early life, the War of 1812, governor of Tennessee, general in the Texas Revolution, the Battle of San Jacinto, and fun facts. Educational article for students, schools, and teachers.

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Civil War for Kids: Battle of Fort Sumter

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Kids learn about the Battle of Fort Sumter, South Carolina. A major event that started American Civil War.

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Never had Frederick Douglass been so nervous. The butterflies in his stomach fluttered with every bounce of the carriage over Baltimore's cobblestone streets as he approached the Baltimore and Ohio railroad station. The slave, then known by his birth name of Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey, was embarking on a perilous journey with New York-and freedom-his intended destinations. After Douglass' attempt to escape slavery two years prior was betrayed by a fellow slave, he had been jailed, sent to Baltimore by his master and hired out to work in the city's shipyards. Undeterred, Douglass vowed to try to escape again on September 3, 1838, although he knew the risk. "I felt assured that if I failed in this attempt, my case would be a hopeless one," he wrote in his autobiography. "It would seal my fate as a slave forever."

Douglass disguised himself as a free black sailor, a creditable ruse given the nautical knowledge he gained from working on the waterfront. The slave also knew that the deference shown to sailors in a seafaring city such as Baltimore could work to his benefit. He donned a red shirt and sailor's hat and loosely knotted a black cravat around his neck. Into his pocket the slave stuffed a sailor's protection pass, which he could present in lieu of the "free papers" that railroad officials required black passengers to carry as proof they were not enslaved. Douglass had borrowed the document from a free African-American seaman, but he bore little resemblance to the physical description detailed on the piece of paper. Close examination by a railroad official or any authority would reveal the subterfuge and imperil both Douglass and his friend.

To avoid the scrutinizing eyes of the ticket agent inside the station, Douglass waited and jumped on the moving train at the last moment as it began to puff its way north. Many minutes passed before the conductor finally entered the segregated passenger car bearing the train's African-American riders. Although Douglass remained calm on the outside, his heart pounded as the conductor carefully inspected the passengers' free papers. "My whole future depended upon the decision of this conductor," he wrote.

Finally, the railroad official came to Douglass' seat. "I suppose you have your free papers?" he asked.

"No, sir; I never carry my free papers to sea with me," the slave said.

"But you have something to show that you are a free man, have you not?" the conductor queried.

"Yes sir, I have a paper with the American eagle on it, that will carry me round the world," Douglass responded. The slave pulled the document out of his pocket. The eyes of the conductor were drawn to the authoritative eagle emblazoned on the top rather than to the erroneous physical description. After a quick glance, the conductor collected Douglass' fare and continued to the back of the rail car. "Had the conductor looked closely at the paper," Douglass wrote, "he could not have failed to discover that it called for a very different looking person from myself."

Douglass' anxiety did not totally fade along with the conductor's footsteps, however. He remained subject to arrest at any moment as the train passed through the slave states of Maryland and Delaware. The faster the train sped, the slower it seemed to drag to the fleeing slave. "Minutes were hours, and hours were days during this part of my flight," he wrote.

In addition, Douglass' cover was nearly blown on multiple occasions. The trip required the fugitive slave to cross the Susquehanna River by ferry, and on board was an old acquaintance who began to ask probing questions about his journey before Douglass could break away. Then, boarding a northbound train across the river, Douglass looked through the window of another train stopped on the track and spotted a white ship captain for whom he had recently worked. The captain's gaze never fixed on the slave, but the eyes of a German blacksmith whom Douglass knew did fall upon him. The blacksmith looked at Douglass intently but never called him out to the railroad officials. "I really believe he knew me," Douglass wrote, "but had not heart to betray me."

In spite of the obstacles, Douglass arrived safely in New York less than 24 hours after leaving Baltimore. Although on free soil, Douglass was not legally a free man. Packs of slave catchers roamed the streets of New York searching for fugitives. Anti-slavery activist David Ruggles sheltered Douglass until his intended wife, a free black housekeeper named Anna Murray, arrived from Baltimore. The afternoon following their nuptials, Douglass and his new bride set off to safer refuge in New Bedford, Massachusetts. There, he began his life as an abolitionist crusader. To better conceal his identity from slave catchers, the escaped slave changed his last name from Bailey to Douglass. His supporters eventually raised enough money for Douglass to purchase his liberty and become a free man in the eyes of the law.

When Douglass published his autobiography in 1845, he divulged few details about his escape in order to protect those who abetted him and to keep authorities ignorant of the method he employed to slip the bonds of slavery. It was not until 1881 that he finally detailed his escape. Douglass always looked back on September 3, 1838, as the day when his "free life began," and for the rest of his life he celebrated the date in place of his unknown birthday.

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Never had Frederick Douglass been so nervous. The butterflies in his stomach fluttered with every bounce of the carriage over Baltimore's cobblestone streets as he approached the Baltimore and Ohio railroad station. The slave, then known by his birth name of Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey, was embarking on a perilous journey with New York-and freedom-his intended destinations.

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Dolley Madison (1768-1849) was an American first lady (1809-1817) and the wife of James Madison, the fourth president of the United States. One of Washington, D.C.'s most successful hostesses, Dolley Madison used her social skills, charm and personal popularity to win over her husband's political opponents and help advance his career. Dolley Madison helped to define the role of first lady and established many of the precedents that her successors would follow, including working with local charities and organizations on social issues important to her and overseeing the decoration of the executive mansion to reflect the importance of the presidency. She is probably best remembered for saving the White House's historic Gilbert Stuart portrait of George Washington from certain destruction by advancing British troops during the War of 1812.

Dolley Payne was born in the Quaker settlement of New Garden in Guilford County, North Carolina, and moved to a plantation in Virginia's Hanover County at 10 months old. The eldest daughter of Mary Coles and John Payne, she learned such domestic skills as needlework, food storage and managing household help, receiving little formal education outside the home. After Payne emancipated his slaves in 1783 and brought the family to Philadelphia, Dolley was exposed to a cosmopolitan existence markedly different from her early years. However, she also experienced misfortune when her father's business failures rendered him unable to pay his debts, leading to his expulsion from the Quakers and the onset of the emotional distress that contributed to his death in 1792.

Accommodating the wishes of her father, Dolley married lawyer and fellow Quaker John Todd Jr. in 1790. She gave birth to sons Payne in 1792 and William in 1793, but her domestic tranquility was interrupted that summer when a yellow fever epidemic swept through Philadelphia. Todd lingered in the city for too long to tend to business, a decision that proved fatal when he contracted the disease. Dolley had escaped to a suburban resort with their boys, but William also became infected and died on the same day as his father. Compounding the difficult situation, Dolley's brother-in-law attempted to hoard the family estate, denying her the opportunity to attain the financial relief needed to get back on her feet.

While in Philadelphia for sessions of Congress, Virginia Representative James Madison came to notice the attractive young widow who lived near his boardinghouse. A shy man known more for his intellect than his charm, he asked New York Senator Aaron Burr to arrange an introduction. Dolley was initially taken aback by the interest of the "great little Madison," but she came to appreciate his affection and the potential for security, and they were married on September 15, 1794. Subsequently expelled from the Quakers for marrying outside the sect, she discarded her plain clothing and began wearing the fashionable outfits that became an indelible part of her public image.

Madison's appointment to secretary of state in 1801 marked the start of Dolley's transformation into celebrated political wife and public servant. She served as the female co-host for the widower President Thomas Jefferson's receptions, helping to mend any breaches in decorum that arose when dealing with foreign dignitaries. She also undertook the responsibility of leading fundraising efforts for Lewis and Clark's exploration of the western wilderness. Although a woman's involvement in political affairs was frowned upon, Dolley rallied support for her husband in the 1808 presidential race through her extensive networking. Her success prompted the opposition candidate Charles Pinckney to grumble, "I might have had a better chance had I faced Mr. Madison alone."

A dazzling figure at the first presidential inauguration ball, Dolley displayed an enthusiasm for social affairs that proved useful to her husband's administration and the continued development of the Union. She established the executive mansion as Washington, D.C.'s social center, her popular "squeezes" providing an environment in which political rivals could mingle outside of the heated floors of Congress. After the British razed the city in 1814, Dolley resumed hosting parties almost immediately after settling in a new residence, a show of determination believed to have helped convince her friends in Congress to vote down a plan to move the capital back to Philadelphia.

When finances started to dwindle, an increasingly frail Madison began preparing his presidential papers with the hope that their sale could provide Dolley with a reliable income. However, she was ill-prepared for the hardships that followed his death in 1836, a situation exacerbated by the misdeeds of her son. Having failed to find a suitable career, Payne borrowed extensively to fund his frivolous lifestyle, forcing Dolley to sell off the family properties to pay his debts. She was finally rescued from financial despair when Congress purchased part of Madison's papers, setting the money in a trust to keep it out of Payne's hands.

Dolley moved back to the capital permanently in 1844, marking the start of her golden years as the grand dame of Washington. Hailed as a living connection to the country's founding fathers, she was awarded an honorary seat in Congress and invited to become the first private citizen to transmit a message via telegraph. She also remained closely connected to the public role she popularized by providing guidance to presidential wives Julia Tyler and Sarah Polk. When she passed away at age 81, she was eulogized by President Zachary Taylor as the country's "first lady," believed to be the first known public reference to the term.

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Dolley Madison (1768-1849) was an American first lady (1809-1817) and the wife of James Madison, the fourth president of the United States. One of Washington, D.C.'s most successful hostesses, Dolley Madison used her social skills, charm and personal popularity to win over her husband's political opponents and help advance his career.

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Dolley Madison - Academic Kids
Read and learn about First Lady Dolley Madison
Score: 82 academickids.com/encyclopedia/index.php...

First Lady Biography: Dolley Madison
Biography of First Lady Dolley Madison
Score: 82 firstladies.org/biographies/firstladies...

Dolley Payne Todd Madison
Dolley Payne Todd Madison, one of the best known and loved First Ladies, was the wife of James Madison
Score: 32 https://www.whitehouse.gov/1600/first-ladies/dolle...

Dolley Payne Todd Madison
For half a century she was the most important woman in the social circles of America,
Score: 30 whitehouse.gov/WH/glimpse/firstladies/h...

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CyberSleuth Kids.com: A K-12 Homework Helper and Directory

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Dolley Madison - Academic Kids Read and learn about First Lady Dolley Madison Score: 82 academickids.com/encyclopedia/index.php... First Lady Biography: Dolley Madison Biography of First Lady Dolley Madison Score: 82 firstladies.org/biographies/firstladies... Dolley Payne Todd Madison Dolley Payne Todd Madison, one of the best known and loved First Ladies, was the wife of James Madison Score: 32 https://www.whitehouse.gov/1600/first-ladies/dolle...

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NAME: Abraham Lincoln

NICKNAMES: Honest Abe, the Great Emancipator

BORN: February 12, 1809, near Hodgenville, Kentucky

DIED: April 15, 1865, in Washington, D.C.

TIME IN OFFICE: March 4, 1861, to April 15, 1865

VICE PRESIDENTS: Hannibal Hamlin (first term), Andrew Johnson (second term)

POLITICAL PARTY: Republican (formerly Whig)

EARLY LIFE

Abraham Lincoln was born in a log cabin in Kentucky on February 12, 1809, to parents who could neither read nor write. He went to school on and off for a total of about a year, but he educated himself by reading borrowed books. When Lincoln was nine years old, his mother died. His father-a carpenter and farmer-remarried and moved his family farther west, eventually settling in Illinois.

As a young adult, Lincoln worked as a flatboat navigator, storekeeper, soldier, surveyor, and postmaster. At age 25 he was elected to the local government in Springfield, Illinois. Once there, he taught himself law, opened a law practice, and earned the nickname "Honest Abe."

He served one term in the U.S. House of Representatives but lost two U.S. Senate races. But the debates he had about the enslavement of people with his 1858 senatorial opponent, Stephen Douglas, helped him win the presidential nomination two years later. (Lincoln opposed the spread of slavery in the United States.) In the four-way presidential race of 1860, Lincoln got more votes than any other candidate.

A NATION DIVIDED

When Lincoln first took office in 1861, the United States was not truly united. The nation had been arguing for more than a hundred years about enslaving people and each state's right to allow it. Now Northerners and Southerners were close to war. When he became president, Lincoln allowed the enslavement of people to continue in southern states but he outlawed its spread to other existing states and states that might later join the Union.

Southern leaders didn't agree with this plan and decided to secede, or withdraw, from the nation. Eventually, 11 southern states formed the Confederate States of America to oppose the 23 northern states that remained in the Union. The Civil War officially began on April 12, 1861, at Fort Sumter, South Carolina, when troops from the Confederacy attacked the U.S. fort.

WARTIME PRESIDENCY

Lincoln's primary goal as president was to hold the country together. For a long time, it didn't look as if he would succeed. During the early years, the South was winning the war. It wasn't until the Battle of Gettysburg in Pennsylvania during July 1863 that the war turned in favor of the Union.

Through speeches such as the Gettysburg Address, Lincoln encouraged Northerners to keep fighting. In this famous dedication of the battlefield cemetery, he urged citizens to ensure "that these dead shall not have died in vain-that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom-and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth." Earlier that same year Lincoln called for the end of the enslavement of people in his Emancipation Proclamation speech.

When the war was nearly over, Lincoln was re-elected in 1864. Civil War victory came on April 9, 1865, at Appomattox Court House, Virginia, when Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered to Union General Ulysses S. Grant. Some 750,000 soldiers had died during the four-year conflict.

OTHER ACCOMPLISHMENTS

Seeing the Union successfully through the Civil War was Lincoln's greatest responsibility, but it wasn't his only triumph during his presidential years. Together with Congress, he established the Department of Agriculture; supported the development of a transcontinental railroad; enacted the Homestead Act, which opened up land to settlers; and crafted the 13th Amendment, which ended the enslavement of people.

TRAGIC FATE

Less than a week after people celebrated the end the Civil War, the country was mourning yet again. Lincoln became the first president to be assassinated when he was shot on April 14, 1865.

The night he was shot, he and his wife, Mary Todd Lincoln, were watching a play in Washington, D.C. The entrance to their box seats was poorly guarded, allowing actor John Wilkes Booth to enter. Booth hoped to revive the Confederate cause by killing Lincoln. He shot Lincoln in the back of the head, then fled the theater. He wasn't caught until two weeks later. He was shot during his eventual capture and died from his wounds.

The wounded and unconscious president was carried to a boardinghouse across the street, where he died the next morning, April 15, 1865. Lincoln's presidency was tragically cut short, but his contributions to the United States ensured that he would be remembered as one of its most influential presidents.
From the Nat Geo Kids books Our Country's Presidents by Ann Bausum and Weird But True Know-It-All: U.S. Presidents by Brianna Dumont, revised for digital by Avery Hurt

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Learn about the life and achievements of the 16th president of the United States.

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NAME: George Washington

NICKNAME: Father of His Country

BORN: February 22, 1732, in Popes Creek, Virginia

DIED: December 14, 1799, in Mount Vernon, Virginia

TIME IN OFFICE: April 30, 1789, to March 3, 1797

VICE PRESIDENT: John Adams

POLITICAL PARTY: Federalist

EARLY LIFE

The son of a landowner and planter, George Washington was born on February 22, 1732, in the British-ruled colony of Virginia. His father died when he was 11, and his older brother, Lawrence, helped raise him. Washington was educated in basic subjects including reading, writing, and mathematics, but he didn't attend college. Not much else is known about his childhood. Stories about his virtues-such as his confession of chopping down his father's cherry tree-were actually invented by an admiring writer soon after Washington's death.

During his 20s, he fought as a soldier in the French and Indian War, Great Britain's fight with France over the Ohio River Valley territory. After the war, Washington returned to Virginia to work as a farmer.

Virginians elected Washington to their colonial legislature, or government, when he was 26. Soon after, he married Martha Dandridge Custis, a wealthy widow with two young children. They settled at Mount Vernon, a family home Washington had inherited.

REVOLUTIONARY WAR HERO

As a government official, Washington spoke out against unfair laws, such as high taxes, during Great Britain's rule. In 1774 and 1775, he was one of Virginia's representatives at the First and Second Continental Congresses, a group of representatives from the 13 colonies that would eventually become the United States. The Second Congress helped future third president, Thomas Jefferson, write the Declaration of Independence in July 1776, proclaiming that the 13 colonies were now independent states, no longer under British rule. An army was formed to oppose the British, and Washington was selected to lead it.

For five years, Washington served as the head of the army as the Revolutionary War against the British raged. The British finally surrendered in 1781 at Yorktown, Virginia. Washington was now a hero, seen as an important person who helped the colonies finally gain independence from Great Britain. After the war, Washington retired from the army and returned to private life.

PATH TO PRESIDENCY

After the end of the war, the former colonies operated under the Articles of Confederation, a document that placed most power with the states. For example, each state printed its own money. There was no national leader. The individual states were not supporting each other as one country, and the new nation seemed to be in trouble.

In 1787 state representatives gathered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, at the Constitutional Convention to fix these problems. There, the delegates wrote the Constitution of the United States. This document created a strong federal government: two chambers of legislators (also called lawmakers), a federal court system, and a president. The Constitution still serves as the foundation for the United States government today.

Based on the Constitution's directions, states chose representatives to elect a president. Washington won the vote, making him the first-ever president of the United States. John Adams received the second most votes and became vice president.

SETTING TRADITIONS

As the nation's first president, Washington set the example for other presidents. He worked out how the nation would negotiate treaties with other countries. He decided how the president would select and get advice from cabinet members. He also established the practice of giving a regular State of the Union speech, a yearly update on how the country is doing. He appointed federal judges and established basic government services such as banks. As president, he also worked hard to keep the new country out of wars with Native Americans and European nations.

During Washington's time as president, New York City was the nation's temporary capital; then Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Although Washington helped plan a permanent national capital, his presidency ended before the federal government moved to the city later named in his honor: Washington, D.C.

LASTING LEGACY

After serving two back-to-back terms as president, Washington retired to Mount Vernon in 1797. He died two years later on December 14, 1799. Washington, who kept one of the largest populations of enslaved people in the country, arranged in his will for them to be freed by the time of his wife's death. After his death, he was praised as being "first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen."

From the Nat Geo Kids books Our Country's Presidents by Ann Bausum and Weird But True Know-It-All: U.S. Presidents by Brianna Dumont, revised for digital by Avery Hurt

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NAME: George Washington NICKNAME: Father of His Country BORN: February 22, 1732, in Popes Creek, Virginia DIED: December 14, 1799, in Mount Vernon, Virginia TIME IN OFFICE: April 30, 1789, to March 3, 1797 VICE PRESIDENT: John Adams POLITICAL PARTY: Federalist The son of a landowner and planter, George Washington was born on February 22, 1732, in the British-ruled colony of Virginia.

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NAME: Thomas Jefferson

NICKNAME: Father of the Declaration of Independence

BORN: April 13, 1743, in Shadwell, Virginia

DIED: July 4, 1826, in Charlottesville, Virginia

TIME IN OFFICE: March 4, 1801, to March 3, 1809

VICE PRESIDENTS: Aaron Burr (first term), George Clinton (second term)

POLITICAL PARTY: Democratic-Republican

EARLY LIFE

Thomas Jefferson was born near the Blue Ridge Mountains of the British-ruled colony of Virginia on April 13, 1743. From the age of nine, Jefferson studied away from home and lived with his tutor. His father-a landowner, surveyor, and government official-died when his son was 14. Later Jefferson enrolled at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia. His education included science, mathematics, philosophy, law, English language and literature, Latin, Greek, French, and dancing.

"LIFE, LIBERTY, AND THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS"

After college, Jefferson became a lawyer. By age 26 he was a member of Virginia's colonial legislature, or government. Like George Washington, Jefferson spoke out against Great Britain's rule over the 13 North American colonies. When the colonists decided to demand their independence from Great Britain, Jefferson was chosen to write a document explaining why the colonies should be free. The document became known as the Declaration of Independence. It's still admired today for its call for freedom, equality, and its demand that all citizens deserve "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."

Before he became president, Jefferson was governor of Virginia before the Revolutionary War. After the war, he served as U.S. minister to France, secretary of state for President George Washington, and vice president for President John Adams, the country's second president.

GO WEST, YOUNG NATION

When Jefferson became the third president of the United States in 1801, the country basically ended at the Mississippi River; France controlled much of what was west. That included the Port of New Orleans, in what is now Louisiana. It's coastal location made it a key spot for trade-and Jefferson wanted it. In 1803, he made what's known as one of the greatest real estate deals in history: the Louisiana Purchase.

France agreed to sell the entire city of New Orleans, which included the port, to the United States for $10 million; they threw in the rest of the territory they owned for an additional $5 million. The agreement-which gave the United States about 828,000 square miles of land-almost doubled the size of the nearly 30-year-old nation. Jefferson selected his personal secretary, Meriwether Lewis, to join William Clark in leading an expedition to the West Coast to explore the country's new land. The Louisiana Purchase is thought by many to be Jefferson's greatest accomplishment as president.

LASTING LEGACY

Jefferson retired to Monticello, his home in Charlottesville, Virginia, at the end of his second term. He designed and founded the University of Virginia in Charlottesville during his retirement.

Jefferson left a complicated legacy: The man who wrote the Declaration of Independence-which states that "all men are created equal"-also enslaved more than 600 people during his lifetime. But according to his writings, Jefferson knew that future generations would have to end the enslavement of people, and that it would be a long, terrible process.

Like his friend John Adams, Jefferson died 50 years to the day after the approval of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1826.

From the Nat Geo Kids books Our Country's Presidents by Ann Bausum and Weird But True Know-It-All: U.S. Presidents by Brianna Dumont, revised for digital by Avery Hurt

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NAME: Thomas Jefferson NICKNAME: Father of the Declaration of Independence BORN: April 13, 1743, in Shadwell, Virginia DIED: July 4, 1826, in Charlottesville, Virginia TIME IN OFFICE: March 4, 1801, to March 3, 1809 VICE PRESIDENTS: Aaron Burr (first term), George Clinton (second term) POLITICAL PARTY: Democratic-Republican Thomas Jefferson was born near the Blue Ridge Mountains of the British-ruled colony of Virginia on April 13, 1743.

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You might know her as a conductor for the Underground Railroad. She was also a spy.

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Pocahontas Matoaka

Pocahontas was named Amonute at birth and went by the name Matoaka. She supposedly earned the nickname Pocahontas, which means "playful one," because of her happy, inquisitive nature.

As the daughter of Chief Powhatan, Pocahontas may have had more luxuries than many of her peers, but she still had to learn so-called women's work such as farming, cooking, collecting herbs, building a house, making clothes, butchering meat and tanning hides.

Pocahontas and John Smith

The first English settlers arrived in Jamestown colony in May 1607. That winter, Pocahontas' brother kidnapped colonist Captain John Smith and made a spectacle of him in front of several Powhatan tribes before taking him to meet Chief Powhatan.

According to Smith, his head was placed on two stones and a warrior prepared to smash his head and kill him. But before the warrior could strike, Pocahontas rushed to Smith's side and placed her head on his, preventing the attack. Chief Powhatan then bartered with Smith, referred to him as his son and sent him on his way.

Smith's account of Pocahontas' lifesaving efforts is hotly debated, partly because he wrote different versions of this initial meeting with Chief Powhatan. Many historians believe Smith was never in peril and the placement of his head on the stones was ceremonial.

Even so, if Smith's explanation of the incident is true, he had no way of knowing about Powhatan ceremonial customs and from his terrified point of view, Pocahontas was undoubtedly his benevolent rescuer.

Pocahontas Saves John Smith Again

Pocahontas became known by the colonists as an important Powhatan emissary. She occasionally brought the hungry settlers food and helped successfully negotiate the release of Powhatan prisoners in 1608. But relations between the colonists and the Indians remained strained.

By 1609, drought, starvation and disease had ravaged the colonists and they became increasingly dependent on the Powhatan to survive. Desperate and dying, they threatened to burn Powhatan towns for food, so Chief Powhatan suggested a barter with Captain Smith.

When negotiations collapsed, the chief supposedly planned an ambush and Smith's execution. But Pocahontas warned Smith of her father's plans and saved his life again.

Soon after, Smith was injured and returned to England; however, Pocahontas and her father were told he died.

Kidnapped by the English

It's thought that Pocahontas married an Indian named Kocoum in 1610. Afterwards, she avoided the English until 1613 when she was lured onto the English ship of Captain Samuel Argall and kidnapped during the First Anglo-Powhatan War.

Argall informed Chief Powhatan that he wouldn't return Pocahontas unless he released English prisoners, returned stolen weapons and sent the colonists food. Much to Pocahontas' dismay, her father only sent half the ransom and left her imprisoned.

While in captivity, Pocahontas lived in the settlement of Henricus under the care of a minister named Alexander Whitaker where she learned about Christianity, English culture and how to speak English. Pocahontas converted to Christianity, was baptized and given the name "Rebecca."

Marriage to John Rolfe

During her imprisonment, Pocahontas met widower and tobacco planter John Rolfe. The couple decided to marry, likely for both love and political purposes - although the decision wasn't an easy one for the staunchly Christian Rolfe until Pocahontas converted.

They sent word to Chief Powhatan that they wanted to marry; he consented as did the Virginia governor, Sir Thomas Dale. It's unclear what happened to Pocahontas' first husband, but divorce was allowed in Powhatan culture.

Pocahontas married Rolfe in April 1614. The match was considered an important step towards re-establishing positive relations between the colonists and the Indians. Indeed, the marriage brought a season of peace to the region.

Journey to England

In 1616, Sir Thomas Dale sailed to England to rally financial support for the Virginia Company, the company owned by wealthy Londoners that had financed the Jamestown colony.

The company also wanted to prove they had met their goal of converting Native Americans to Christianity, so Rolfe, Pocahontas, their infant son Thomas (born in 1615) and a dozen Powhatan Indians accompanied Dale on the trip.

In London, Pocahontas was revered as a princess and referred to as "Lady Rebecca Wolfe." She attended plays and balls and was even presented to the royal family.

Much to her surprise, Pocahontas encountered Captain Smith (whom she thought was dead) in London. Although she was overcome with emotion upon seeing him alive and called him "father," she also reportedly chastised him for his treatment of Chief Powhatan and her people.

The Virginia Company commissioned a portrait of Pocahontas dressed in expensive clothes with an engraved label that said, "Matoaka, alias Rebecca, daughter of the most powerful prince of the Powhatan Empire of Virginia." It is the only image drawn of her in person.

How Did Pocahontas Die?

In March 1617, Pocahontas, her husband and son set sail for Virginia. But they had hardly made progress when she became gravely ill and was taken ashore at Gravesend, England.

It's uncertain what disease struck her down. Some speculate it was tuberculosis, pneumonia, dysentery or smallpox; others believe she was poisoned. According to Rolfe, Pocahontas said on her deathbed, "All must die. But 'tis enough that my child liveth."

Pocahontas was buried at St. George's church in Gravesend on March 21, 1617. Rolfe returned to Virginia, but her son Thomas remained with relatives in England. He returned almost two decades later at age 20 to claim inheritances from his father and grandfather and became a successful gentleman tobacco farmer.

Chief Powhatan was devastated upon learning of his daughter's death. He died about a year later and relations between the Powhatan and Virginia colonists declined rapidly.

Much of Pocahontas' life has been romanticized and sensationalized in movies and books. But written accounts and Native American oral history show she lived a brief yet significant life.

She was instrumental to maintaining relations between her father and the Jamestown colonists and is believed to be the first Powhatan Indian to convert to Christianity. She is remembered as a courageous, strong woman who left an indelible impression on colonial America.

Sources

Ambassador to England. Jamestown Rediscovery.

Captain John Smith. National Park Service: Historic Jamestown.

Marriage. Jamestown Rediscovery.

Pocahontas Biography. Biography.

Pocahontas. Gravesend St. George's.

Pocahontas: Her Life and Legend. National Park Service: Historic Jamestown.

Virginia Company. Jamestown Rediscovery.

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Pocahontas Matoaka Pocahontas was named Amonute at birth and went by the name Matoaka. She supposedly earned the nickname Pocahontas, which means "playful one," because of her happy, inquisitive nature. As the daughter of Chief Powhatan, Pocahontas may have had more luxuries than many of her peers, but she still had to learn so-called women's [...]

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Martha Washington (1731-1802) was an American first lady (1789-97) and the wife of George Washington, first president of the United States and commander in chief of the colonial armies during the American Revolution. She set many of the standards and customs for the proper behavior and treatment of a U.S. president's wife. (The term "first lady," however, did not come into common use until well into the 19th century.)

Martha Dandridge was the first of eight children born to Frances Jones and John Dandridge, an English native who established a moderately successful plantation outside of Williamsburg, Virginia. Few details of her childhood have been revealed, as no surviving diaries or correspondences exist from the period, but it is known she developed a lifelong love of reading at an early age. She also underwent the training expected of a young woman of her class, receiving lessons in subjects both functional (needlework, household management) and recreational (dancing, horseback riding).

As the wife of the Continental Army's commander-in-chief, Martha Washington was integral to a fundraising campaign that called upon woman to donate money, clothing and supplies to the Revolutionary cause. Martha also traveled to be at Washington's side for his winter encampments, weathering the notoriously brutal season at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, in early 1778. Her residence during those periods was the social center for visiting military leaders and foreign dignitaries, and she also provided care for injured and exhausted soldiers, who greatly appreciated the efforts of "Lady Washington."

Washington's unanimous election to the presidency in 1789 brought Martha and the family to New York City. An experienced hostess from her days of managing their Mount Vernon estate in Virginia, she established the traditions of holding formal dinners on Thursdays and public receptions on Fridays. However, she was unhappy living in New York, and while she drew some comfort when the capital was moved to the more familiar city of Philadelphia in 1790, she still privately chafed at the demands of her public role. It is unclear whether she influenced policy in any way, although it is believed she was a strong supporter of Washington's Federalist Party.

While Martha was thrilled to return to Mount Vernon in March 1797, her desire to resume a private life was thwarted by the frequency of visitors to their home. After Washington's death in December 1799, she was granted the free postage privilege known as "franking" to respond to the condolences that came flooding in by mail. The news of her own death, approximately 2 ½ years after her husband's, was also widely reported, with one obituary remembering her as "the worthy partner of the worthiest of men." She was later honored as the first woman to have her likeness printed on U.S. currency (1886), as well as the first to appear on a U.S. postage stamp (1902).

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Martha Washington (1731-1802) was an American first lady (1789-97) and the wife of George Washington, first president of the United States and commander in chief of the colonial armies during the American Revolution. She set many of the standards and customs for the proper behavior and treatment of a U.S.

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Benjamin Franklin ‑ Biography, Inventions & Facts | HISTORY

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Benjamin Franklin (1706‑1790) was a statesman, author, publisher, scientist, inventor, diplomat, a Founding Father and a leading figure of early American history.

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1. He only had two years of formal education.

The man considered the most brilliant American of his age rarely saw the inside of a classroom. Franklin spent just two years attending Boston Latin School and a private academy before joining the family candle and soap-making business.

By age 12, he was serving as an indentured apprentice at a printing shop owned by his brother, James. Young Benjamin made up for his lack of schooling by spending what little money he earned on books, often going without food to afford new volumes. He also honed his composition skills by reading essays and articles and then rewriting them from memory.

Despite being almost entirely self-taught, Franklin later helped found the school that became the University of Pennsylvania and received honorary degrees from Harvard, Yale, the College of William and Mary, the University of St. Andrews and Oxford.

2. Franklin became a hit writer as a teenager.

After his brother James founded a weekly newspaper called the New England Courant in the 1720s, a 16-year-old Franklin began secretly submitting essays and commentary as "Silence Dogood," a fictitious widow who offered homespun musings on everything from fashion and marriage to women's rights and religion.

The letters were hugely popular, and Mrs. Dogood soon received several marriage proposals from eligible bachelors in Boston. Franklin penned 14 Dogood essays before unmasking himself as their author, much to his jealous brother's chagrin. Sick of the toil and beatings he endured as James' apprentice, the teenaged sensation then fled Boston the following year and settled in Philadelphia, the city that would remain his adopted hometown for the rest of his life.

3. He spent half his life in unofficial retirement.

Franklin arrived in Philadelphia in 1723 practically penniless, but over the next two decades he became enormously wealthy as a print shop owner, land speculator and publisher of the popular "Poor Richard's Almanack."

By 1748, the 42-year-old was rich enough to hang up his printer's apron and become a "gentleman of leisure." Franklin's retirement allowed him to spend his remaining 42 years studying science and devising inventions such as the lightning rod, bifocal glasses and a more efficient heating stove. It also gave him the freedom to devote himself to public service.

Despite never running for elected office, he served as a delegate to the Continental Congress and the Constitutional Convention, diplomat and ambassador to France and Sweden, the first postmaster general and the president of the Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania.

4. Franklin designed a musical instrument used by Mozart and Beethoven.

Among Franklin's more unusual inventions is his "glass armonica," an instrument designed to replicate the otherworldly sound that a wet finger makes when rubbed along the rim of a glass. He made his first prototype in 1761 by having a London glassmaker build him 37 glass orbs of different sizes and pitches, which he then mounted on a spindle controlled by a foot pedal.

To play the instrument, the user would simply wet their fingers, rotate the apparatus and then touch the glass pieces to create individual tones or melodies. The armonica would go on to amass a considerable following during the 18th and early 19th centuries. Thousands were manufactured, and the likes of Mozart, Beethoven and Strauss all composed music for it.

Franklin would later write that "Of all my inventions, the glass armonica has given me the greatest personal satisfaction."

5. He was a reluctant revolutionary.

Franklin was among the last of the Founding Fathers to come out in favor of full separation from Britain. Having lived in London for several years and held royal appointments, he instead pushed for peaceful compromise and the preservation of the empire, once writing that, "every encroachment on rights is not worth a rebellion."

When the Boston Tea Party took place in 1773, he dubbed it an "act of violent injustice on our part" and insisted that the East India Company should be compensated for its losses. Franklin had soured on the monarchy by the time he returned to the United States for the Second Continental Congress in 1775, but his past support for King George III earned him the suspicion of many of his fellow patriots. Before he publicly announced his support for American independence, a few even suspected he might be a British spy.

6. Franklin created a phonetic alphabet.

While living in London in 1768, Franklin embarked on a project "to give the alphabet a more natural order." Annoyed by the many inconsistencies in English spelling, he devised his own phonetic system that ditched the redundant consonants C, J, Q, W, X and Y and added six new letters, each designed to represent its own specific vocal sound.

Franklin unveiled his "Scheme for a new Alphabet and a Reformed Mode of Spelling" in an essay published in 1779, but later scrapped the project after it failed to arouse public interest.

7. His son was a British loyalist.

Along with the two children he had with his wife, Deborah Read, Franklin also fathered an illegitimate son named William around 1730. The two were once close friends and partners-William helped Franklin with his famous kite experiment-but they later had a major falling out over the American Revolution. While Franklin joined in calling for independence from the mother country, William remained a staunch Tory who branded the patriots "intemperate zealots" and refused to resign his post as the royal governor of New Jersey.

He spent two years in a colonial prison for opposing the revolution and later became a leader in a loyalist group before moving to England at the end of the war. The elder Franklin never forgave his son for "taking up arms against me." He all but cut William out of his will, arguing, "the part he acted against me in the late war...will account for my leaving him no more of an estate he endeavored to deprive me of."

8. Franklin was a fashion icon in France.

In 1776, the Continental Congress sent Franklin to France to seek military aid for the revolution. The 70-year-old was already world-renowned for his lighting experiments-the French even called their electrical experimenters "Franklinistes"-but his fame soared to new heights after his arrival in Paris.

Franklin capitalized on the French conception of Americans as rustic frontiersmen by dressing plainly and wearing a fur hat, which soon became his trademark and appeared in countless French portraits and medallions. Women even took to imitating the cap with oversized wigs in a style called "coiffure a la Franklin."

When Franklin later traded the fur cap for a white hat during the signing of the 1778 treaty between France and the United States, white-colored headgear instantly became a fashion trend among the men of Paris.

9. He spent his later years as an abolitionist.

Franklin owned at least two slaves during his life, both of whom worked as household servants, but in his old age, he came to view slavery as a vile institution that ran counter to the principles of the American Revolution.

He took over as president of a Pennsylvania abolitionist society in 1787, and in 1790 he presented a petition to Congress urging it to grant liberty "to those unhappy men who alone in this land of freedom are degraded into perpetual bondage."

While the petition was ignored, Franklin kept up the fight until his death a few months later and even included a provision in his will that required his daughter and son-in-law to free their slave to get their inheritance.

10. Franklin left Boston and Philadelphia an unusual gift in his will.

When he died in April 1790, Franklin willed 2,000 pounds sterling to his birthplace of Boston and his adopted home of Philadelphia. The largesse came with an unusual caveat: for its first 100 years, the money was to be placed in a trust and only used to provide loans to local tradesmen. A portion could then be spent, but the rest would remain off-limits for another 100 years, at which point the cities could use it as they saw fit. Boston and

Philadelphia followed Franklin's wishes, and by 1990 their funds were worth $4.5 million and $2 million, respectively. The two towns have since used the windfall to help finance the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia and the Benjamin Franklin Institute of Technology in Boston. Philadelphia also put some of its funds toward scholarships for students attending trade schools.

11. He's a member of the International Swimming Hall of Fame.

Franklin had a lifelong love of swimming that began during his childhood in Boston. One of his first inventions was a pair of wooden hand paddles that he used to propel himself through the Charles River, and he wrote of once using a kite to skim across a pond.

While living in England in the 1760s, he displayed such an impressive array of swimming strokes during a dip in Thames that a friend offered to help him open his own swimming school. Franklin declined the offer, but he remained a proponent of swimming instruction for the rest of his life, once writing, "every parent would be glad to have their children skilled in swimming." His aquatic exploits have since earned him an honorary induction into the International Swimming Hall of Fame.

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11 Surprising Facts About Benjamin Franklin | HISTORY

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The United States' original renaissance man created some unusual inventions-and was a passionate swimmer.

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Did Revolutionary War Heroine Molly Pitcher Exist?

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She supposedly cared for American soldiers during the war—and then took over for one of them when he could no longer fight.

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Elizabeth "Betsy" Ross is famous for making the first American flag. But is the account of her contribution to the American Revolution simply a legend?

Although she purportedly sewed the first flag in 1776, Ross wasn't credited with this work during her lifetime. In fact, her story was first publicly relayed to the Historical Society of Pennsylvania nearly a century later, in 1870, by her grandson, William Canby.

According to Canby, Ross had often recounted a visit she had received in late May or early June of 1776 from three men: General George Washington, financier of the Revolutionary War Robert Morris and Colonel George Ross, a relative. During this meeting, she was allegedly presented with a sketch of a flag that featured 13 red and white stripes and 13 six-pointed stars, and was asked if she could create a flag to match the proposed design. Ross agreed, but suggested a couple of changes, including arranging the stars in a circle and reducing the points on each star to five instead of six.

The following year, on June 14, 1777, Congress officially adopted the Stars and Stripes as the national flag.

Canby's claim (which was supported by affidavits from Ross's daughter, niece and granddaughter) was published in "Harper's New Monthly Magazine" in 1873 and soon became part of the United States history curriculum taught to millions of elementary-aged school children every year.

No official documentation has been found to confirm that Betsy Ross was responsible for creating the very first flag, but it is conceivable that Colonel George Ross-a signer of the Declaration of Independence and her deceased husband's uncle-recommended her for the job. Betsy may also have been acquainted with both Washington and Morris, who were reported to have worshipped at the same church she attended. It has also been established that Ross did indeed make flags, as evidenced by a receipt for the sum of more than 14 pounds paid to her on May 29, 1777, by the Pennsylvania State Navy Board for making "ships colours."

Some historians attribute the design of the first flag to Francis Hopkinson, a New Jersey delegate to the Continental Congress and signer of the Declaration of Independence, who also played a role in designing seals for various departments within the U.S. government. In 1780, Hopkinson sought payment from the Board of Admiralty for his design of the "flag of the United States of America." However, his petition for payment was denied on the grounds that "he was not the only one consulted" on the design.
READ MORE: The Mysterious Origins of the American Flag

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Did Betsy Ross really make the first American flag?

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Elizabeth "Betsy" Ross is famous for making the first American flag. But is the account of her contribution to the American Revolution simply a legend? Although she purportedly sewed the first flag in 1776, Ross wasn't credited with this work during her lifetime.

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Abigail Adams was one of only two women to have been both wife and mother to two U.S. presidents (the other being Barbara Bush). Often separated from her husband due to his political work, the self-educated Abigail oversaw the family's household and largely raised their four children on her own, all the while maintaining a lively lifelong correspondence with her husband on the political issues of the day. She was also famous for her early advocacy of several divisive causes, including women's rights, female education and the abolition of slavery.

Abigail Adams: Early Life

Born in 1744, Abigail Smith grew up in Weymouth, Massachusetts, a village some 12 miles from Boston. Her father, William Smith, was minister of the First Congregational Church there, and also made a living as a farmer.

He and his wife, Elizabeth Quincy Smith, both belonged to distinguished families in New England. Elizabeth's father, John Quincy, was active in the colonial government and served as Speaker of the Massachusetts Assembly for 40 years, and his career in public service greatly influenced his granddaughter.

Educated at home, Abigail read widely from the family library. When she was just 11, she and her sisters began receiving tutoring from Richard Cranch, a transplant from England who later married Abigail's elder sister, Mary.

A friend of Cranch's, a young lawyer named John Adams, met 17-year-old Abigail and fell in love. After a long engagement that her parents insisted on, they married on October 24, 1764, when Abigail was 19 and John was 28.

Abigail Adams' Children

Just nine months after their marriage, Abigail gave birth to the couple's first child, Abigail (called Nabby). She would have six children in all; four lived to adulthood, including Nabby Adams, John Quincy Adams (born 1767), Charles Adams (born 1770) and Thomas Adams (born 1772).

In 1774, as the tensions between the 13 colonies and Great Britain threatened to burst into violence, John Adams headed to Philadelphia for the First Continental Congress. He and Abigail began writing regularly to each other during this period, beginning what would become a voluminous and historic correspondence.

ABIGAIL ADAMS Quotes: Remember the Ladies

Abigail herself passionately supported independence, and famously argued that it should be applied to women as well as men. During the Second Continental Congress, as John Adams and his fellow delegates debated the question of formally declaring independence from Great Britain, Abigail wrote to her husband from their home in Braintree, Massachusetts, on March 31, 1776:

"And, by the way, in the New Code of Laws which I suppose it will be necessary for you to make, I desire you would Remember the Ladies, and be more generous and favourable to them than your ancestors ... Remember all Men would be tyrants if they could. If particular attention is not paid to the Ladies we are determined to foment a Rebellion, and will not hold ourselves bound by any Laws in which we have no Voice, or Representation."

Though her husband replied somewhat jokingly to her appeal-expressing fear of the "Despotism of the Petticoat"-Abigail later pushed back, making it clear that she was serious about the implications that liberty from the British had for the status of women in a future independent republic.

She also vigorously supported education for women, writing to John in 1778 that "you need not be told how much female education is neglected, nor how fashionable it has been to ridicule female learning."

Abigail Adams, First Lady

In the years after the Revolutionary War, John Adams served as the U.S. minister to France and then England. Abigail remained at home at first, keeping her husband well informed about domestic affairs in her letters.

She joined him in Europe in 1784, and they remained abroad for five more years, returning home in 1789 so John could assume the vice presidency under George Washington. Over the next decade, Abigail divided her time between the U.S. capital (first New York and then Philadelphia) and Braintree, where she managed the family farm.

In 1793, Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson stepped down amid serious fissures between the Federalists and anti-Federalists (known as Jeffersonians) in Washington's cabinet. When Washington announced his intention to retire in 1796, John Adams emerged as the leading candidate on the Federalist side, with Jefferson as his main opponent.

Abigail, like her husband, had considered Jefferson a good friend, and regularly written letters to him, but their correspondence stopped once he and John Adams began competing against each other for the nation's highest office.

As first lady, Abigail maintained and voiced strong opinions about the political issues and debates of the day, including the Federalist vs. anti-Federalist struggle. She wrote at the time of her struggles to keep herself in check: "I have been so used to freedom of sentiment that I know not how to place so many guards about me, as will be indispensable, to look at every word before I utter it, and to impose a silence upon myself, when I long to talk."

Abigail spent much of her husband's time in office at home in Massachusetts, but in 1800 she moved with him into the new presidential mansion in Washington, D.C., becoming the first first lady to live in the White House.

She famously disagreed with her husband during the XYZ Affair, with Abigail thinking war should be declared against France. Abigail and John Adams did agree on the Alien & Sedition Acts of 1798, as Abigail saw The Sedition Act banning malicious anti-government writings as serving justice to those who published lies about her husband.

Retiring From Public Life

During the bitterly contested 1800 presidential election, the Jeffersonian press attacked Abigail as being too outspoken and imperious. One opponent, Albert Gallatin, memorably wrote that "She is Mrs. President, not of the United States but of a faction...It is not right."

After Adams lost to Jefferson, Abigail wrote to her son that she had "few regrets" about retiring from public life. "At my age, and with my bodily infirmities, I shall be happier at Quincy [Massachusetts]."

Their son Charles, who had struggled with alcohol abuse, died a few days before the election, which hit both Adamses harder than the loss of the presidency.

Legacy of Abigail Adams

In retirement, Abigail maintained a brisk correspondence, including a renewed relationship with Jefferson (with whom John Adams would exchange letters until they both died on the same day: July 4, 1826, the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence).

She and John saw their son John Quincy's political career prosper, including a diplomatic post in London and his appointment as secretary of state under James Madison in 1817. Unlike John, Abigail would not live to see John Quincy Adams elected as the nation's sixth president in 1826. She died at home in Quincy in October 1818, at the age of 73 of Typhoid fever.

Abigail Adams refused during her lifetime to allow her correspondence to be published, judging a woman's letters to be a private matter. But in 1848, her grandson Charles Frances Adams (John Quincy's youngest son) arranged the publication of her first volume of letters, preserving forever her unique experience and perspective on American life and democracy.

Sources

Diane Jacobs, Dear Abigail: The Intimate Lives and Revolutionary Ideas of Abigail Adams and Her Two Remarkable Sisters (Ballantine Books, 2014).

First Lady Biography: Abigail Adams, National First Ladies' Library.

Abigail Smith Adams, National Women's History Museum.

The Adams Children, PBS: American Experience.

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Abigail Adams was one of only two women to have been both wife and mother to two U.S. presidents (the other being Barbara Bush). Often separated from her husband due to his political work, the self-educated Abigail oversaw the family's household and largely raised their four children on her own, all the while maintaining a lively lifelong correspondence with her husband on the political issues of the day.

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A patriot, soldier, and hero, Prudence Cummings Wright defied traditional gender roles to protect her town during the American Revolution.

Born on November 26, 1740 in Dunstable, Massachusetts, Prudence Cummings was reared in a home with divided loyalties. As unrest and revolutionary sentiments disseminated amongst the colonists, Prudence found herself on the side of the Patriots, while two of her brothers pledged allegiance to the Crown. In 1761, Prudence married David Wright, a stalwart Whig and avid supporter of independence.

The couple settled in Pepperell, Massachusetts, where they became indispensable leaders of the cause. David, along with other patriotic Pepperell men, responded to the war's first shots at Lexington by marching to a nearby town to intercept advancing British troops. Meanwhile, Prudence spearheaded a novel and ingenious venture for the women left at home: a female militia. Dubbing themselves the "Minutewomen", Prudence, who had been elected as the militia's captain, and about 30-40 other townswomen dressed as men, shouldered muskets, wielded pitchforks, and marched to Jewett's Bridge. It was here on the Nashua River that the "Prudence Wright Guard" planned to intimidate the approaching Redcoats. The courageous women successfully stopped the British, captured several soldiers, and intercepted vital dispatches regarding troop movements. To this day, a marker near Jewett's Bridge honors the event, reading: "Near this spot a party of patriotic women, under the leadership of Mrs. David Wright, of Pepperell, in April, 1775, captured Leonard Whiting, a Tory who carrying treasonable dispatches to the enemy at Boston."

Both Prudence and her husband continued to fight for independence throughout the war, while raising their eleven children. Prudence died in 1823. Her epitaph reads: "In Memory of the Captain of the Bridge Guard."

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A patriot, soldier, and hero, Prudence Cummings Wright defied traditional gender roles to protect her town during the American Revolution. Born on November 26, 1740 in Dunstable, Massachusetts, Prudence Cummings was reared in a home with divided loyalties.

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Why Did the Boston Tea Party Happen?

In the 1760s, Britain was deep in debt, so British Parliament imposed a series of taxes on American colonists to help pay those debts.

The Stamp Act of 1765 taxed colonists on virtually every piece of printed paper they used, from playing cards and business licenses to newspapers and legal documents. The Townshend Acts of 1767 went a step further, taxing essentials such as paint, paper, glass, lead and tea.

The British government felt the taxes were fair since much of its debt was earned fighting wars on the colonists' behalf. The colonists, however, disagreed. They were furious at being taxed without having any representation in Parliament, and felt it was wrong for Britain to impose taxes on them to gain revenue.

Boston Massacre Enrages Colonists

On March 5, 1770, a street brawl happened in Boston between American colonists and British soldiers.

Later known as the Boston Massacre, the fight began after an unruly group of colonists-frustrated with the presence of British soldiers in their streets- flung snowballs, ice and oyster shells at a British sentinel guarding the Boston Customs House.

Reinforcements arrived and opened fire on the mob, killing five colonists and wounding six. The Boston Massacre and its fallout further incited the colonists' rage towards Britain.

Tea Act Imposed

Britain eventually repealed the taxes it had imposed on the colonists except the tea tax. It wasn't about to give up tax revenue on the nearly 1.2 million pounds of tea the colonists drank each year.

In protest, the colonists boycotted tea sold by British East India Company and smuggled in Dutch tea, leaving British East India Company with millions of pounds of surplus tea and facing bankruptcy.

In May 1773, British Parliament passed the Tea Act which allowed British East India Company to sell tea to the colonies duty-free and much cheaper than other tea companies-but still tax the tea when it reached colonial ports.

Tea smuggling in the colonies increased, although the cost of the smuggled tea soon surpassed that of tea from British East India Company with the added tea tax.

Still, with the help of prominent tea smugglers such as John Hancock and Samuel Adams -who protested taxation without representation but also wanted to protect their tea smuggling operations-colonists continued to rail against the tea tax and Britain's control over their interests.

Sons of Liberty

The Sons of Liberty were a group of colonial merchants and tradesmen founded to protest the Stamp Act and other forms of taxation. The group of revolutionists included prominent patriots such as Benedict Arnold, Patrick Henry and Paul Revere, as well as Adams and Hancock.

Led by Adams, the Sons of Liberty held meetings rallying against British Parliament and protested the Griffin's Wharf arrival of Dartmouth, a British East India Company ship carrying tea. By December 16, 1773, Dartmouth had been joined by her sister ships, Beaver and Eleanor; all three ships loaded with tea from China.

That morning, as thousands of colonists convened at the wharf and its surrounding streets, a meeting was held at the Old South Meeting House where a large group of colonists voted to refuse to pay taxes on the tea or allow the tea to be unloaded, stored, sold or used. (Ironically, the ships were built in America and owned by Americans.)

Governor Thomas Hutchison refused to allow the ships to return to Britain and ordered the tea tariff be paid and the tea unloaded. The colonists refused, and Hutchison never offered a satisfactory compromise.

Facts: What Happened at the Boston Tea Party

That night, a large group of men-many reportedly members of the Sons of Liberty- disguised themselves in Native American garb, boarded the docked ships and threw 342 chests of tea into the water.

Said participant George Hewes, "We then were ordered by our commander to open the hatches and take out all the chests of tea and throw them overboard, and we immediately proceeded to execute his orders, first cutting and splitting the chests with our tomahawks, so as thoroughly to expose them to the effects of the water."

Hewes also noted that "We were surrounded by British armed ships, but no attempt was made to resist us."

Did you know? It took nearly three hours for more than 100 colonists to empty the tea into Boston Harbor. The chests held more than 90,000 lbs. (45 tons) of tea, which would cost nearly $1,000,000 dollars today.

Boston Tea Party Aftermath

While some important colonist leaders such as John Adams were thrilled to learn Boston Harbor was covered in tea leaves, others were not.

In June of 1774, George Washington wrote: "the cause of Boston...ever will be considered as the cause of America." But his personal views of the event were far different. He voiced strong disapproval of "their conduct in destroying the Tea" and claimed Bostonians "were mad." Washington, like many other elites, held private property to be sacrosanct.

Benjamin Franklin insisted the British East India Company be reimbursed for the lost tea and even offered to pay for it himself.

No one was hurt, and aside from the destruction of the tea and a padlock, no property was damaged or looted during the Boston Tea Party. The participants reportedly swept the ships' decks clean before they left.

Who Organized the Boston Tea Party?

Though led by Samuel Adams and his Sons of Liberty and organized by John Hancock, the names of many of those involved in the Boston Tea Party remain unknown. Thanks to their Native American costumes, only one of the tea party culprits, Francis Akeley, was arrested and imprisoned.

Even after American independence, participants refused to reveal their identities, fearing they could still face civil and criminal charges as well as condemnation from elites for the destruction of private property. Most participants in the Boston Tea Party were under the age of 40 and 16 of them were teenagers.

Coercive Acts

But despite the lack of violence, the Boston Tea Party didn't go unanswered by King George III and British Parliament.

In retribution, they passed the Coercive Acts (later known as the Intolerable Acts) which:

Closed Boston Harbor until the tea lost in the Boston Tea Party was paid for

Ended the Massachusetts Constitution and ended free elections of town officials

Moved judicial authority to Britain and British judges, basically creating martial law in Massachusetts

Required colonists to quarter British troops on demand

Extended freedom of worship to French-Canadian Catholics under British rule, which angered the mostly Protestant colonists

Britain hoped the Coercive Acts would squelch rebellion in New England and keep the remaining colonies from uniting, but the opposite happened: All the colonies viewed the punitive laws as further evidence of Britain's tyranny and rallied to Massachusetts' aid, sending supplies and plotting further resistance.

Second Boston Tea Party

A second Boston Tea Party took place in March 1774, when around 60 Bostonians boarded the ship Fortune and dumped nearly 30 chests of tea into the harbor.

The event didn't earn nearly as much notoriety as the first Boston Tea Party, but it did encourage other tea-dumping demonstrations in Maryland, New York and South Carolina.

First Continental Congress Is Convened

Many colonists felt Britain's Coercive Acts went too far. On September 5, 1774, elected delegates from all 13 American colonies except Georgia met in Carpenter's Hall in Philadelphia for the First Continental Congress to figure out how to resist British oppression.

The delegates were divided on how to move forward but the Boston Tea Party had united them in their fervor to gain independence. By the time they adjourned in October 1774, they'd written The Declaration and Resolves which:

Censured Britain for passing the Coercive Acts and called for their repeal

Established a boycott of British goods

Declared the colonies had the right to govern independently

Rallied colonists to form and train a colonial militia

Britain didn't capitulate and within months, the " shot heard round the world," rang out in Concord, Massachusetts, sparking the start of the American Revolutionary War.

Sources

A Tea Party Timeline: 1773-1775. Old South Meeting House.
The Boston Tea Party. The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.
The Boston Tea Party. Massachusetts Historical Society.
The Boston Tea Party, 1773. EyewitnesstoHistory.com.
The Intolerable Acts. U.S.History.org.

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Boston Tea Party - Definition, Dates & Facts | HISTORY

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The Boston Tea Party was a political protest staged on December 16, 1773 at Griffin's Wharf in Boston, Massachusetts. American colonists, frustrated at Britain for imposing "taxation without representation," dumped 342 chests of British tea into the harbor. The event was the first major act of defiance to British rule over the colonists.

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Thomas Jefferson's Early Years

Thomas Jefferson was born on April 13, 1743, at Shadwell, a plantation on a large tract of land near present-day Charlottesville, Virginia. His father, Peter Jefferson (1707/08-57), was a successful planter and surveyor and his mother, Jane Randolph Jefferson (1720-76), came from a prominent Virginia family. Thomas was their third child and eldest son; he had six sisters and one surviving brother.

Did you know? In 1815, Jefferson sold his 6,700-volume personal library to Congress for $23,950 to replace books lost when the British burned the U.S. Capitol, which housed the Library of Congress, during the War of 1812. Jefferson's books formed the foundation of the rebuilt Library of Congress's collections.

In 1762, Jefferson graduated from the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, where he reportedly enjoyed studying for 15 hours, then practicing violin for several more hours on a daily basis. He went on to study law under the tutelage of respected Virginia attorney George Wythe (there were no official law schools in America at the time, and Wythe's other pupils included future Chief Justice John Marshall and statesman Henry Clay).

Jefferson began working as a lawyer in 1767. As a member of colonial Virginia's House of Burgesses from 1769 to 1775, Jefferson, who was known for his reserved manner, gained recognition for penning a pamphlet, "A Summary View of the Rights of British America" (1774), which declared that the British Parliament had no right to exercise authority over the American colonies.

Marriage and Monticello

After his father died when Jefferson was a teen, the future president inherited the Shadwell property. In 1768, Jefferson began clearing a mountaintop on the land in preparation for the elegant brick mansion he would construct there called Monticello ("little mountain" in Italian). Jefferson, who had a keen interest in architecture and gardening, designed the home and its elaborate gardens himself.

Over the course of his life, he remodeled and expanded Monticello and filled it with art, fine furnishings and interesting gadgets and architectural details. He kept records of everything that happened at the 5,000-acre plantation, including daily weather reports, a gardening journal and notes about his slaves and animals.

On January 1, 1772, Jefferson married Martha Wayles Skelton (1748-82), a young widow. The couple moved to Monticello and eventually had six children; only two of their daughters-Martha (1772-1836) and Mary (1778-1804)-survived into adulthood. In 1782, Jefferson's wife Martha died at age 33 following complications from childbirth. Jefferson was distraught and never remarried. However, it is believed he fathered more children with one of his enslaved women, Sally Hemings (1773-1835), who was also his wife's half-sister.

Slavery was a contradictory issue in Jefferson's life. Although he was an advocate for individual liberty and at one point promoted a plan for the gradual emancipation of slaves in America, he enslaved people throughout his life. Additionally, while he wrote in the Declaration of Independence that "all men are created equal," he believed African Americans were biologically inferior to whites and thought the two races could not coexist peacefully in freedom. Jefferson inherited some 175 enslaved people from his father and father-in-law and owned an estimated 600 slaves over the course of his life. He freed only a small number of them in his will; the majority were sold following his death.

Thomas Jefferson and the American Revolution

In 1775, with the American Revolutionary War recently underway, Jefferson was selected as a delegate to the Second Continental Congress. Although not known as a great public speaker, he was a gifted writer and at age 33, was asked to draft the Declaration of Independence (before he began writing, Jefferson discussed the document's contents with a five-member drafting committee that included John Adams and Benjamin Franklin). The Declaration of Independence, which explained why the 13 colonies wanted to be free of British rule and also detailed the importance of individual rights and freedoms, was adopted on July 4, 1776.

In the fall of 1776, Jefferson resigned from the Continental Congress and was re-elected to the Virginia House of Delegates (formerly the House of Burgesses). He considered the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, which he authored in the late 1770s and which Virginia lawmakers eventually passed in 1786, to be one of the significant achievements of his career. It was a forerunner to the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which protects people's right to worship as they choose.

From 1779 to 1781, Jefferson served as governor of Virginia, and from 1783 to 1784, did a second stint in Congress (then officially known, since 1781, as the Congress of the Confederation). In 1785, he succeeded Benjamin Franklin (1706-90) as U.S. minister to France. Jefferson's duties in Europe meant he could not attend the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in the summer of 1787; however, he was kept informed of the proceedings to draft a new national constitution and later advocated for including a bill of rights and presidential term limits.

Jefferson's Path to the Presidency

After returning to America in the fall of 1789, Jefferson accepted an appointment from President George Washington (1732-99) to become the new nation's first secretary of state. In this post, Jefferson clashed with U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton (1755/57-1804) over foreign policy and their differing interpretations of the U.S. Constitution. In the early 1790s, Jefferson, who favored strong state and local government, co-founded the Democratic-Republican Party to oppose Hamilton's Federalist Party, which advocated for a strong national government with broad powers over the economy.

In the presidential election of 1796, Jefferson ran against John Adams and received the second-highest amount of votes, which, according to the law at the time, made him vice president.

Jefferson ran against Adams again in the presidential election of 1800, which turned into a bitter battle between the Federalists and Democratic-Republicans. Jefferson defeated Adams; however, due to a flaw in the electoral system, Jefferson tied with fellow Democratic-Republican Aaron Burr (1756-1836). The House of Representatives broke the tie and voted Jefferson into office. In order to avoid a repeat of this situation, Congress proposed the Twelfth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which required separate voting for president and vice president. The amendment was ratified in 1804.

Jefferson Becomes Third U.S. President

Jefferson was sworn into office on March 4, 1801; he was the first presidential inauguration held in Washington, D.C. ( George Washington was inaugurated in New York in 1789; in 1793, he was sworn into office in Philadelphia, as was his successor, John Adams, in 1797.) Instead of riding in a horse-drawn carriage, Jefferson broke with tradition and walked to and from the ceremony.

One of the most significant achievements of Jefferson's first administration was the purchase of the Louisiana Territory from France for $15 million in 1803. At more than 820,000 square miles, the Louisiana Purchase (which included lands extending between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains and the Gulf of Mexico to present-day Canada) effectively doubled the size of the United States. Jefferson then commissioned explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark to explore the uncharted land, plus the area beyond, out to the Pacific Ocean. (At the time, most Americans lived within 50 miles of the Atlantic Ocean.) Lewis and Clark's expedition, known today as the Corps of Discovery, lasted from 1804 to 1806 and provided valuable information about the geography, American Indian tribes and animal and plant life of the western part of the continent.

In 1804, Jefferson ran for re-election and defeated Federalist candidate Charles Pinckney (1746-1825) of South Carolina with more than 70 percent of the popular vote and an electoral count of 162-14. During his second term, Jefferson focused on trying to keep America out of Europe's Napoleonic Wars (1803-15). However, after Great Britain and France, who were at war, both began harassing American merchant ships, Jefferson implemented the Embargo Act of 1807.

The act, which closed U.S. ports to foreign trade, proved unpopular with Americans and hurt the U.S. economy. It was repealed in 1809 and, despite the president's attempts to maintain neutrality, the U.S. ended up going to war against Britain in the War of 1812. Jefferson chose not to run for a third term in 1808 and was succeeded in office by James Madison (1751-1836), a fellow Virginian and former U.S. secretary of state.

Thomas Jefferson's Later Years and Death

Jefferson spent his post-presidential years at Monticello, where he continued to pursue his many interests, including architecture, music, reading and gardening. He also helped found the University of Virginia, which held its first classes in 1825. Jefferson was involved with designing the school's buildings and curriculum and ensured that unlike other American colleges at the time, the school had no religious affiliation or religious requirements for its students.

Jefferson died at age 83 at Monticello on July 4, 1826, the 50th anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence. Coincidentally, John Adams, Jefferson's friend, former rival and fellow signer of the Declaration of Independence, died the same day. Jefferson was buried at Monticello. However, due to the significant debt the former president had accumulated during his life, his mansion, furnishing and enslaved people were sold at auction following his death. Monticello was eventually acquired by a nonprofit organization, which opened it to the public in 1954.

Jefferson remains an American icon. His face appears on the U.S. nickel and is carved into stone at Mount Rushmore. The Jefferson Memorial, near the National Mall in Washington, D.C., was dedicated on April 13, 1943, the 200th anniversary of Jefferson's birth.

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Thomas Jefferson - Facts, Presidency & Children

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Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), a statesman, Founding Father, author of the Declaration of Independence and the third U.S. president, was a leading figure in America's early development. One of Jefferson's major legacies was the Louisiana Purchase, which more than doubled the size of the United States.

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Sutter's Mill

On January 24, 1848, James Wilson Marshall, a carpenter originally from New Jersey, found flakes of gold in the American River at the base of the Sierra Nevada Mountains near Coloma, California.

At the time, Marshall was working to build a water-powered sawmill owned by John Sutter, a German-born Swiss citizen and founder of a colony of Nueva Helvetia (New Switzerland, which would later become the city of Sacramento). As Marshall later recalled of his historic discovery: "It made my heart thump, for I was certain it was gold."

Did you know? Miners extracted more than 750,000 pounds of gold during the California Gold Rush.

Days after Marshall's discovery at Sutter's Mill, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was signed, ending the Mexican-American War and leaving California in the hands of the United States-a remarkable twist of fate with important ramifications for an America eager for westward expansion.

At the time, the population of the territory consisted of 6,500 Californios (people of Spanish or Mexican descent); 700 foreigners (primarily Americans); and 150,000 Native Americans (barely half the number that had been there when Spanish settlers arrived in 1769).

Sutter, in fact, had enslaved hundreds of Native Americans and used them as a free source of labor and makeshift militia to defend his territory and expand his empire.

Gold Fever Strikes

Though Marshall and Sutter tried to keep news of the discovery under wraps, word got out, and by mid-March at least one newspaper was reporting that large quantities of gold were being turned up at Sutter's Mill. Though the initial reaction in San Francisco was disbelief, storekeeper Sam Brannan set off a frenzy when he paraded through town displaying a vial of gold obtained from Sutter's Creek.

By mid-June, shops and businesses stood empty, as some three-quarters of the male population of San Francisco had abandoned the city for the gold mines, and the number of miners in the area ballooned to some 4,000 by August.

As news reports-many wildly overblown-of the easy fortunes being made in California spread worldwide, some of the first migrants to arrive were those from lands accessible by boat, such as Oregon, the Sandwich Islands (now Hawaii), Mexico, Chile, Peru and China.

Polk Spreads Gold Fever

When the news reached the East Coast, press reports were initially skeptical. Gold fever kicked off nationwide in earnest, however, after December 1848, when President James K. Polk announced the positive results of a report made by Colonel Richard Mason, California's military governor, in his inaugural address.

As Polk wrote, "The accounts of abundance of gold are of such an extraordinary character as would scarcely command belief were they not corroborated by the authentic reports of officers in the public service."

The '49ers Come to California

Throughout 1849, people around the United States (mostly men) with gold fever borrowed money, mortgaged their property or spent their life savings to make the arduous journey to California. In pursuit of the kind of wealth they had never dreamed of, they left their families and hometowns. In turn, women left behind took on new responsibilities such as running farms or businesses and caring for their children alone.

Thousands of would-be gold miners, known as 49ers for the year they arrived, traveled overland across the mountains or by sea, sailing to Panama or even around Cape Horn, the southernmost point of South America.

By the end of the year, the non-native population of California was estimated at 100,000, (as compared with 20,000 at the end of 1848 and around 800 in March 1848). To accommodate the needs of the 49ers, gold mining towns had sprung up all over the region, complete with shops, saloons, brothels and other businesses seeking to make their own Gold Rush fortune.

The overcrowded chaos of the mining camps and towns grew ever more lawless, including rampant banditry, gambling, alcoholism, prostitution and violence. San Francisco, for its part, developed a bustling economy and became the central metropolis of the new frontier.

Gold Rush Politics

The Gold Rush undoubtedly sped up California's admission to the Union as the 31st state. In late 1849, California applied to enter the Union with a constitution that barred the Southern system of racial slavery, provoking a crisis in Congress between proponents of slavery and anti-slavery politicians.

According to the Compromise of 1850, proposed by Kentucky's Senator Henry Clay, California was allowed to enter as a free state, while the territories of Utah and New Mexico were left to decide the legal status of slavery for themselves.

California's Mines

After 1850, the surface gold in California largely disappeared, even as miners continued to arrive. Mining had always been difficult and dangerous labor, and striking it rich required good luck as much as skill and hard work. Moreover, the average daily take for an independent miner working with his pick and shovel had by then sharply decreased from what it had been in 1848.

As gold became more and more difficult to reach, the growing industrialization of mining drove more and more miners from independence into wage labor. The new technique of hydraulic mining, developed in 1853, brought enormous profits but destroyed much of the region's landscape.

Though gold mining continued throughout the 1850s, it had reached its peak by 1852, when some $81 million was pulled from the ground. After that year, the total take declined gradually, leveling off to around $45 million per year by 1857. Settlement in California continued, however, and by the end of the decade the state's population was 380,000.

Impact of the Gold Rush

New mining methods and the population boom in the wake of the California Gold Rush permanently altered the landscape of California. The technique of hydraulic mining brought enormous profits but destroyed much of the region's landscape.

Dams designed to supply water to mine sites in summer altered the course of rivers away from farmland, while sediment from mines clogged others. The logging industry in the area was born from the need to construct extensive canals and feed boilers at mines, further consuming natural resources.

In 1884, hydraulic mining was outlawed by court order, and soon agriculture became the dominant industry in California, and it remains so today. While a few mines and Gold Rush towns remain, much of the heritage of that era is preserved at places such as Bodie State Historic Park, a decaying ghost town, and at Marshall Gold Discovery State Historic Park, where Sutter's Mill once stood.

Sources

Environmental Impact of the Gold Rush. Calisphere.org.
After the Gold Rush. National Geographic.

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Gold Rush: California, Date & Sutter's Mill - HISTORY

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The Gold Rush in California started in 1848 after gold was found at Sutter's Mill. Within a year, hundreds of thousands of 49ers seeking fortune poured into the state.

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1. California did not have the first gold rush in American history.
That honor actually belongs to North Carolina. Fifty years before gold was discovered at Sutter's mill, the first gold rush in American history got underway after a 17-pound gold nugget was found in Cabarrus County, North Carolina. Eventually, more than 30,000 people in the Tar Heel state were mining for gold, and for more than 30 years all gold coins issued by the U.S. Mint were produced using North Carolina gold.

2. The Gold Rush was the largest mass migration in U.S. history.
In March 1848, there were roughly 157,000 people in the California territory; 150,000 Native Americans, 6,500 of Spanish or Mexican descent known as Californios and fewer than 800 non-native Americans. Just 20 months later, following the massive influx of settlers, the non-native population had soared to more than 100,000. And the people just kept coming. By the mid 1850s there were more than 300,000 new arrivals-and one in every 90 people in the United States was living in California. All of these people (and all of this money) helped fast track California to statehood. In 1850, just two years after the U.S. government had purchased the land, California became the 31st state in the Union.

3. The Gold Rush attracted immigrants from around the world.
In fact, by 1850 more than 25 percent of California's population had been born outside the United States. As news of the discovery was slow to reach the east coast, many of the first immigrants to arrive were from South America and Asia. By 1852, more than 25,000 immigrants from China alone had arrived in America. As the amount of available gold began to dwindle, miners increasingly fought one another for profits and anti-immigrant tensions soared. The government got into the action too. In 1850 California's legislature passed a Foreign Miner's tax, which levied a monthly fee of $20 on non-citizens, the equivalent of more than $500 in today's money. That bill was eventually repealed, but was replaced with another in 1852 that expressly singled out Chinese miners, charging them $2 ($80 today) a month. Violence against foreign miners increased as well, and beatings, rapes and even murders became commonplace. However no ethnic group suffered more than California's Native Americans. Before the Gold Rush, its native population numbered roughly 300,000. Within 20 years, more than 100,000 would be dead. Most died from disease or mining-related accidents, but more than 4,000 were murdered by enraged miners.

4. The Gold Rush was a male-dominated event.
Hundreds of thousands of people flocked to California to make their fortunes in the Gold Rush, but almost none of them were women. In 1852, 92 percent of the people prospecting for gold were men. The few women who did travel to the west eked out a living in the growing boomtowns, working in the restaurants, saloons and hotels that seemingly popped up every day. Some women's journals back east, fearful of the trouble the men might get into without the civilizing influence of women, published stories and ran ads encouraging educated, morally minded young women to travel west to tame these men. Few took them up on this offer. The percentage of women in gold mining communities did eventually increase somewhat, but even in 1860 they numbered fewer than 10,000-just 19 percent.

5. Early sections of San Francisco were built out of ships abandoned by prospectors.
The Gold Rush conjures up images of thousands of "'49ers" heading west in wagons to strike it rich in California, but many of the first prospectors actually arrived by ship-and few of them had a return ticket. Within months, San Francisco's port was teeming with boats that had been abandoned after their passengers-and crew-headed inland to hunt for gold. As the formerly tiny town began to boom, demand for lumber increased dramatically, and the ships were dismantled and sold as construction material. Hundreds of houses, banks, saloons, hotels, jails and other structures were built out of the abandoned ships, while others were used as landfill for lots near the waters edge. Today, more than 150 years after the Gold Rush began, archeologists and preservations continue to find relics, sometimes even entire ships, beneath the streets of the City by the Bay.

6. Prospecting for gold was a very costly enterprise.
Most of the men who flocked to northern California arrived with little more than the clothes on their backs. Once there, they needed to buy food, goods and supplies, which San Francisco's merchants were all too willing to provide-for a cost. Stuck in a remote region, far from home, many prospectors coughed up most of their hard-earned money for the most basic supplies. At the height of the boom in 1849, prospectors could expect prices sure to cause sticker shock: A single egg could cost the equivalent of $25 in today's money, coffee went for more than $100 per pound and replacing a pair of worn out boots could set you back more than $2,500.

7. More fortunes were made by merchants than by miners.
As the boom continued, more and more men got out of the gold-hunting business and began to open businesses catering to newly arrived prospectors. In fact, some of America's greatest industrialists got their start in the Gold Rush. Phillp Armour, who would later found a meatpacking empire in Chicago, made a fortune operating the sluices that controlled the flow of water into the rivers being mined. Before John Studebaker built one of America's great automobile fortunes, he manufactured wheelbarrows for Gold Rush miners. And two entrepreneurial bankers named Henry Wells and William Fargo moved west to open an office in San Francisco, an enterprise that soon grew to become one of America's premier banking institutions. One of the biggest mercantile success stories was that of Levi Strauss. A German-born tailor, Strauss arrived in San Francisco in 1850 with plans to open a store selling canvas tarps and wagon coverings to the miners. After hearing that sturdy work pants-ones that could withstand the punishing 16-hour days regularly put in by miners-were more in demand, he shifted gears, opening a store in downtown San Francisco that would eventually become a manufacturing empire, producing Levi's denim jeans.

8. Thousands of Gold Rush prospectors got rich-but John Sutter wasn't one of them.
John Sutter, the man whose land would become synonymous with the California Gold Rush, was a Swiss immigrant who fled Europe in the 1830s, leaving behind piles of unpaid debts. After several years of travelling throughout North America, he finally settled in the tiny outpost of Yuerba Buena (modern-day San Francisco) in 1839. With the assistance of the local Mexican government, Sutter quickly realized his goal of establishing an agricultural community on a 50,000-acre tract of land he called "New Helvetia," Latin for "New Switzerland, which became an important outpost for emigrants traveling to the west. It was during the construction of a sawmill on Sutter's land along the American River that one of his employees first discovered the gold nugget that would change the world. Sutter, initially more interested in maintaining control over his property, tried to keep the discovery quiet, but the news quickly leaked out. Within months, most of his workers had abandoned him to search for gold themselves, while thousands of other prospectors overran and destroyed much of his land and equipment. Faced with mounting debts, Sutter was forced to deed his land to one of his sons, who used it to create a new settlement called Sacramento. Sutter Sr. was furious-he had hoped the town would be named after him-but he had more pressing concerns. Nearly bankrupt, he began a decades-long campaign to have the U.S. government reimburse him for his financial losses, to no avail. While thousands became rich off his former land, a bitter Sutter retired to Pennsylvania and died.

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8 Things You May Not Know About the California Gold Rush

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1. California did not have the first gold rush in American history. That honor actually belongs to North Carolina. Fifty years before gold was discovered at Sutter's mill, the first gold rush in American history got underway after a 17-pound gold nugget was found in Cabarrus County, North Carolina.

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Abraham Lincoln's Childhood and Early Life

Lincoln was born on February 12, 1809, to Nancy and Thomas Lincoln in a one-room log cabin in Hardin County, Kentucky. His family moved to southern Indiana in 1816. Lincoln's formal schooling was limited to three brief periods in local schools, as he had to work constantly to support his family.

In 1830, his family moved to Macon County in southern Illinois, and Lincoln got a job working on a river flatboat hauling freight down the Mississippi River to New Orleans. After settling in the town of New Salem, Illinois, where he worked as a shopkeeper and a postmaster, Lincoln became involved in local politics as a supporter of the Whig Party, winning election to the Illinois state legislature in 1834.

Like his Whig heroes Henry Clay and Daniel Webster, Lincoln opposed the spread of slavery to the territories, and had a grand vision of the expanding United States, with a focus on commerce and cities rather than agriculture.

Did you know? The war years were difficult for Abraham Lincoln and his family. After his young son Willie died of typhoid fever in 1862, the emotionally fragile Mary Lincoln, widely unpopular for her frivolity and spendthrift ways, held seances in the White House in the hopes of communicating with him, earning her even more derision.

Lincoln taught himself law, passing the bar examination in 1836. The following year, he moved to the newly named state capital of Springfield. For the next few years, he worked there as a lawyer and served clients ranging from individual residents of small towns to national railroad lines.

He met Mary Todd, a well-to-do Kentucky belle with many suitors (including Lincoln's future political rival, Stephen Douglas), and they married in 1842. The Lincolns went on to have four children together, though only one would live into adulthood: Robert Todd Lincoln (1843-1926), Edward Baker Lincoln (1846-1850), William Wallace Lincoln (1850-1862) and Thomas "Tad" Lincoln (1853-1871).

Abraham Lincoln Enters Politics

Lincoln won election to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1846 and began serving his term the following year. As a congressman, Lincoln was unpopular with many Illinois voters for his strong stance against the Mexican-American War. Promising not to seek reelection, he returned to Springfield in 1849.

Events conspired to push him back into national politics, however: Douglas, a leading Democrat in Congress, had pushed through the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854), which declared that the voters of each territory, rather than the federal government, had the right to decide whether the territory should be slave or free.

On October 16, 1854, Lincoln went before a large crowd in Peoria to debate the merits of the Kansas-Nebraska Act with Douglas, denouncing slavery and its extension and calling the institution a violation of the most basic tenets of the Declaration of Independence.

With the Whig Party in ruins, Lincoln joined the new Republican Party-formed largely in opposition to slavery's extension into the territories-in 1856 and ran for the Senate again that year (he had campaigned unsuccessfully for the seat in 1855 as well). In June, Lincoln delivered his now-famous "house divided" speech, in which he quoted from the Gospels to illustrate his belief that "this government cannot endure, permanently, half slave and half free."

Lincoln then squared off against Douglas in a series of famous debates; though he lost the Senate election, Lincoln's performance made his reputation nationally.

Abraham Lincoln's 1860 Presidential Campaign

Lincoln's profile rose even higher in early 1860 after he delivered another rousing speech at New York City's Cooper Union. That May, Republicans chose Lincoln as their candidate for president, passing over Senator William H. Seward of New York and other powerful contenders in favor of the rangy Illinois lawyer with only one undistinguished congressional term under his belt.

In the general election, Lincoln again faced Douglas, who represented the northern Democrats; southern Democrats had nominated John C. Breckenridge of Kentucky, while John Bell ran for the brand new Constitutional Union Party. With Breckenridge and Bell splitting the vote in the South, Lincoln won most of the North and carried the Electoral College to win the White House.

He built an exceptionally strong cabinet composed of many of his political rivals, including Seward, Salmon P. Chase, Edward Bates and Edwin M. Stanton.

Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War

After years of sectional tensions, the election of an antislavery northerner as the 16th president of the United States drove many southerners over the brink. By the time Lincoln was inaugurated as 16th U.S. president in March 1861, seven southern states had seceded from the Union and formed the Confederate States of America.

Lincoln ordered a fleet of Union ships to supply the federal Fort Sumter in South Carolina in April. The Confederates fired on both the fort and the Union fleet, beginning the Civil War. Hopes for a quick Union victory were dashed by defeat in the Battle of Bull Run (Manassas), and Lincoln called for 500,000 more troops as both sides prepared for a long conflict.

While the Confederate leader Jefferson Davis was a West Point graduate, Mexican War hero and former secretary of war, Lincoln had only a brief and undistinguished period of service in the Black Hawk War (1832) to his credit. He surprised many when he proved to be a capable wartime leader, learning quickly about strategy and tactics in the early years of the Civil War, and about choosing the ablest commanders.

General George McClellan, though beloved by his troops, continually frustrated Lincoln with his reluctance to advance, and when McClellan failed to pursue Robert E. Lee's retreating Confederate Army in the aftermath of the Union victory at Antietam in September 1862, Lincoln removed him from command.

During the war, Lincoln drew criticism for suspending some civil liberties, including the right of habeas corpus, but he considered such measures necessary to win the war.

Emancipation Proclamation and Gettysburg Address

Shortly after the Battle of Antietam (Sharpsburg), Lincoln issued a preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, which took effect on January 1, 1863, and freed all of the enslaved people in the rebellious states not under federal control, but left those in the border states (loyal to the Union) in bondage.

Though Lincoln once maintained that his "paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or destroy slavery," he nonetheless came to regard emancipation as one of his greatest achievements and would argue for the passage of a constitutional amendment outlawing slavery (eventually passed as the 13th Amendment after his death in 1865).

Two important Union victories in July 1863-at Vicksburg, Mississippi, and at the Battle of Gettysburg in Pennsylvania-finally turned the tide of the war. General George Meade missed the opportunity to deliver a final blow against Lee's army at Gettysburg, and Lincoln would turn by early 1864 to the victor at Vicksburg, Ulysses S. Grant, as supreme commander of the Union forces.

In November 1863, Lincoln delivered a brief speech (just 272 words) at the dedication ceremony for the new national cemetery at Gettysburg. Published widely, the Gettysburg Address eloquently expressed the war's purpose, harking back to the Founding Fathers, the Declaration of Independence and the pursuit of human equality. It became the most famous speech of Lincoln's presidency, and one of the most widely quoted speeches in history.

Abraham Lincoln Wins 1864 Presidential Election

In 1864, Lincoln faced a tough reelection battle against the Democratic nominee, the former Union General George McClellan, but Union victories in battle (especially General William T. Sherman's capture of Atlanta in September) swung many votes the president's way. In his second inaugural address, delivered on March 4, 1865, Lincoln addressed the need to reconstruct the South and rebuild the Union: "With malice toward none; with charity for all."

As Sherman marched triumphantly northward through the Carolinas after staging his March to the Sea from Atlanta, Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox Court House, Virginia, on April 9. Union victory was near, and Lincoln gave a speech on the White House lawn on April 11, urging his audience to welcome the southern states back into the fold. Tragically, Lincoln would not live to help carry out his vision of Reconstruction.

Abraham Lincoln's Assassination

On the night of April 14, 1865, the actor and Confederate sympathizer John Wilkes Booth slipped into the president's box at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C., and shot him point-blank in the back of the head. Lincoln was carried to a boardinghouse across the street from the theater, but he never regained consciousness, and died in the early morning hours of April 15, 1865.

Lincoln's assassination made him a national martyr. On April 21, 1865, a train carrying his coffin left Washington, D.C. on its way to Springfield, Illinois, where he would be buried on May 4. Abraham Lincoln's funeral train traveled through 180 cities and seven states so mourners could pay homage to the fallen president.

Today, Lincoln's birthday-alongside the birthday of George Washington-is honored on President's Day, which falls on the third Monday of February.

Abraham Lincoln Quotes

"Nothing valuable can be lost by taking time."

"I want it said of me by those who knew me best, that I always plucked a thistle and planted a flower where I thought a flower would grow."

"I am rather inclined to silence, and whether that be wise or not, it is at least more unusual nowadays to find a man who can hold his tongue than to find one who cannot."

"I am exceedingly anxious that this Union, the Constitution, and the liberties of the people shall be perpetuated in accordance with the original idea for which that struggle was made, and I shall be most happy indeed if I shall be a humble instrument in the hands of the Almighty, and of this, his almost chosen people, for perpetuating the object of that great struggle."

"This is essentially a People's contest. On the side of the Union, it is a struggle for maintaining in the world, that form, and substance of government, whose leading object is, to elevate the condition of men-to lift artificial weights from all shoulders-to clear the paths of laudable pursuit for all-to afford all, an unfettered start, and a fair chance, in the race of life."

"Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal."

"This nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom-and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."

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Abraham Lincoln: Facts, Birthday & Assassination | HISTORY

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Abraham Lincoln, a self-taught lawyer, legislator and vocal opponent of slavery, was elected 16th president of the United States in November 1860, shortly before the outbreak of the Civil War. He led the nation through the bloody conflict and declared all enslaved people free under the Emancipation Proclamation.

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The Great Emancipator wasn't quite WWE material, but thanks to his long limbs he was an accomplished wrestler as a young man. Defeated only once in approximately 300 matches, Lincoln reportedly talked a little smack in the ring. According to Carl Sandburg's biography of Lincoln, Honest Abe once challenged an entire crowd of onlookers after dispatching an opponent: "I'm the big buck of this lick. If any of you want to try it, come on and whet your horns." There were no takers. Lincoln's grappling exploits earned him an "Outstanding American" honor in the National Wrestling Hall of Fame.

2. Lincoln created the Secret Service hours before his assassination.

On April 14, 1865, Lincoln signed legislation creating the U.S. Secret Service. That evening, he was shot at Ford's Theatre. Even if the Secret Service had been established earlier, it wouldn't have saved Lincoln: The original mission of the law enforcement agency was to combat widespread currency counterfeiting. It was not until 1901, after the killing of two other presidents, that the Secret Service was formally assigned to protect the commander-in-chief.

3. Grave robbers attempted to steal Lincoln's corpse.

Secret Service did come to Lincoln's protection, but only in death. In 1876 a gang of Chicago counterfeiters attempted to snatch Lincoln's body from his tomb, which was protected by just a single padlock, in Oak Ridge Cemetery in Springfield, Illinois. Their scheme was to hold the corpse for a ransom of $200,000 and obtain the release of the gang's best counterfeiter from prison. Secret Service agents, however, infiltrated the gang and were lying in wait to disrupt the operation. Lincoln's body was quickly moved to an unmarked grave and eventually encased in a steel cage and entombed under 10 feet of concrete.

4. John Wilkes Booth's brother saved the life of Lincoln's son.

A few months before John Wilkes Booth assassinated Lincoln, the president's oldest son, Robert Todd Lincoln, stood on a train platform in Jersey City, New Jersey. A throng of passengers began to press the young man backwards, and he fell into the open space between the platform and a moving train. Suddenly, a hand reached out and pulled the president's son to safety by the coat collar. Robert Todd Lincoln immediately recognized his rescuer: famous actor Edwin Booth, brother of John Wilkes. (In another eerie coincidence, on the day of Edwin Booth's funeral-June 9, 1893-Ford's Theatre collapsed, killing 22 people.

5. Lincoln is the only president to have obtained a patent.

Benjamin Franklin isn't the only American political leader who demonstrated an inventive mind. After being aboard a steamboat that ran aground on low shoals and had to unload its cargo, Lincoln, who loved tinkering with machines, designed a method for keeping vessels afloat when traversing shallow waters through the use of empty metal air chambers attached to their sides. For his design, Lincoln obtained Patent No. 6,469 in 1849.

6. Lincoln personally test-fired rifles outside the White House.

Lincoln was a hands-on commander-in-chief who, given his passion for gadgetry, was keenly interested in the artillery used by his Union troops during the Civil War. Lincoln attended artillery and cannon tests and met at the White House with inventors demonstrating military prototypes. Although there was a standing order against firing weapons in the District of Columbia, Lincoln even test-fired muskets and repeating rifles on the grassy expanses around the White House, now known as the Ellipse and the National Mall.

7. Lincoln came under enemy fire on a Civil War battlefield.

When Confederate troops attacked Washington, D.C., in July 1864, Lincoln visited the front lines at Fort Stevens on two days of the battle, which the Union ultimately won. At one point the gunfire came dangerously close to the president. Legend has it that Colonel Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., a future Supreme Court justice, barked, "Get down, you fool!" Lincoln ducked down from the fort's parapet and left the battlefield unharmed.

8. Lincoln didn't move to Illinois until he was 21.

Illinois may be known as the Land of Lincoln, but it was in Indiana that the 16th president spent his formative years. Lincoln was born in a Kentucky log cabin in 1809, and in 1816 his father, Thomas, moved the family across the Ohio River to a 160-acre plot in southern Indiana. Lincoln did not migrate to Illinois until 1830.

9. Poisoned milk killed Lincoln's mother.

When Abraham was 9 years old in 1818, his mother, Nancy, died of a mysterious "milk sickness" that swept across southern Indiana. It was later learned that the strange disease was due to drinking tainted milk from a cow that had ingested poisonous white snakeroot.

10. Lincoln never slept in the Lincoln Bedroom.

When he occupied the White House, the 16th president used the current Lincoln Bedroom as his personal office. It was there that he met with Cabinet members and signed documents, including the Emancipation Proclamation.

Fact Check

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10 Things You May Not Know About Abraham Lincoln | HISTORY

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Explore 10 things you may not know about the 16th U.S. president.

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When Was Harriet Tubman Born?

Harriet Tubman was born around 1820 on a plantation in Dorchester County, Maryland. Her parents, Harriet ("Rit") Green and Benjamin Ross, named her Araminta Ross and called her "Minty."

Rit worked as a cook in the plantation's "big house," and Benjamin was a timber worker. Araminta later changed her first name to Harriet in honor of her mother.

Harriet had eight brothers and sisters, but the realities of slavery eventually forced many of them apart, despite Rit's attempts to keep the family together. When Harriet was five years old, she was rented out as a nursemaid where she was whipped when the baby cried, leaving her with permanent emotional and physical scars.

Around age seven Harriet was rented out to a planter to set muskrat traps and was later rented out as a field hand. She later said she preferred physical plantation work to indoor domestic chores.

A Good Deed Gone Bad

Harriet's desire for justice became apparent at age 12 when she spotted an overseer about to throw a heavy weight at a fugitive. Harriet stepped between the enslaved person and the overseer-the weight struck her head.

She later said about the incident, "The weight broke my skull ... They carried me to the house all bleeding and fainting. I had no bed, no place to lie down on at all, and they laid me on the seat of the loom, and I stayed there all day and the next."

Harriet's good deed left her with headaches and narcolepsy the rest of her life, causing her to fall into a deep sleep at random. She also started having vivid dreams and hallucinations which she often claimed were religious visions (she was a staunch Christian). Her infirmity made her unattractive to potential slave buyers and renters.

Escape from Slavery

In 1840, Harriet's father was set free and Harriet learned that Rit's owner's last will had set Rit and her children, including Harriet, free. But Rit's new owner refused to recognize the will and kept Rit, Harriet and the rest of her children in bondage.

Around 1844, Harriet married John Tubman, a free Black man, and changed her last name from Ross to Tubman. The marriage was not good, and the knowledge that two of her brothers-Ben and Henry-were about to be sold provoked Harriet to plan an escape.

Harriet Tubman: Underground Railroad

On September 17, 1849, Harriet, Ben and Henry escaped their Maryland plantation. The brothers, however, changed their minds and went back. With the help of the Underground Railroad, Harriet persevered and traveled 90 miles north to Pennsylvania and freedom.

Tubman found work as a housekeeper in Philadelphia, but she wasn't satisfied living free on her own-she wanted freedom for her loved ones and friends, too.

She soon returned to the south to lead her niece and her niece's children to Philadelphia via the Underground Railroad. At one point, she tried to bring her husband John north, but he'd remarried and chose to stay in Maryland with his new wife.

Fugitive Slave Act

The 1850 Fugitive Slave Act allowed fugitive and freed workers in the north to be captured and enslaved. This made Harriet's role as an Underground Railroad conductor much harder and forced her to lead enslaved people further north to Canada, traveling at night, usually in the spring or fall when the days were shorter.

She carried a gun for both her own protection and to "encourage" her charges who might be having second thoughts. She often drugged babies and young children to prevent slave catchers from hearing their cries.

Over the next 10 years, Harriet befriended other abolitionists such as Frederick Douglass, Thomas Garrett and Martha Coffin Wright, and established her own Underground Railroad network. It's widely reported she emancipated 300 enslaved people; however, those numbers may have been estimated and exaggerated by her biographer Sarah Bradford, since Harriet herself claimed the numbers were much lower.

Nevertheless, it's believed Harriet personally led at least 70 enslaved people to freedom, including her elderly parents, and instructed dozens of others on how to escape on their own. She claimed, "I never ran my train off the track and I never lost a passenger."

Harriet Tubman's Civil War Service

When the Civil War broke out in 1861, Harriet found new ways to fight slavery. She was recruited to assist fugitive enslaved people at Fort Monroe and worked as a nurse, cook and laundress. Harriet used her knowledge of herbal medicines to help treat sick soldiers and fugitive enslaved people.

In 1863, Harriet became head of an espionage and scout network for the Union Army. She provided crucial intelligence to Union commanders about Confederate Army supply routes and troops and helped liberate enslaved people to form Black Union regiments.

Though just over five feet tall, she was a force to be reckoned with, although it took over three decades for the government to recognize her military contributions and award her financially.

Harriet Tubman's Later Years

After the Civil War, Harriet settled with family and friends on land she owned in Auburn, New York. She married former enslaved man and Civil War veteran Nelson Davis in 1869 (her husband John had died 1867) and they adopted a little girl named Gertie a few years later.

Harriet had an open-door policy for anyone in need. She supported her philanthropy efforts by selling her home-grown produce, raising pigs and accepting donations and loans from friends. She remained illiterate yet toured parts of the northeast speaking on behalf of the women's suffrage movement and worked with noted suffrage leader Susan B. Anthony.

In 1896, Harriet purchased land adjacent to her home and opened the Harriet Tubman Home for Aged and Indigent Colored People. The head injury she suffered in her youth continued to plague her and she endured brain surgery to help relieve her symptoms. But her health continued to deteriorate and eventually forced her to move into her namesake rest home in 1911.

Pneumonia took Harriet Tubman's life on March 10, 1913, but her legacy lives on. Schools and museums bear her name and her story has been revisited in books, movies and documentaries.

Harriet Tubman: $20 Bill

Tubman even had a World War II Liberty ship named after her, the SS Harriet Tubman.

In 2016, the United States Treasury announced that Harriet's image will replace that of former President and slaveowner Andrew Jackson on the $20 bill. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin (who served under President Trump) later announced the new bill would be delayed until at least 2026. In January 2021, President Biden's administration announced it would speed up the design process to mint the bills honoring Tubman's legacy.

Sources

Early Life. Harriet Tubman Historical Society.

General Tubman: Female Abolitionist was Also a Secret Military Weapon. Military Times.

Harriet Tubman Biography. Biography.

Harriet Tubman Home for the Aged, Residence, and Thompson AME Zion Church. National Park Service.

Harriet Tubman Myths and Facts. Bound for the Promised Land: Harriet Tubman Portrait of An American Hero by Kate Clifford Larson, Ph.D.

Harriet Tubman. National Park Service.

Harriet Tubman. National Women's History Museum.

Harriet Tubman: The Moses of Her People. Harriet Tubman Historical Society.

Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad. National Park Service.

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Harriet Tubman: Facts, Underground Railroad & Legacy | HISTORY

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Harriet Tubman was an escaped enslaved woman who became a "conductor" on the Underground Railroad, leading enslaved people to freedom before the Civil War. She was also a nurse, a Union spy and a women's suffrage supporter.

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They called her "Moses" for leading enslaved people in the South to freedom up North. But Harriet Tubman fought the institution of slavery well beyond her role as a conductor for the Underground Railroad. As a soldier and spy for the Union Army during the Civil War, Tubman became the first woman to lead an armed military operation in the United States in what is known as the Combahee Ferry Raid.

By January 1, 1863, when the Emancipation Proclamation went into effect, Tubman had been in South Carolina as a volunteer for the Union Army. With her family behind in Auburn, New York, and having established herself as a prominent abolitionist in Boston circles, Tubman, at the request of Massachusetts Governor John Andrew, had gone to Hilton Head, South Carolina, which had fallen to the Union Army early in the war.

Tubman Becomes Military Leader

For months, Tubman worked as a laundress, opening a wash house, and serving as a nurse, until she was given orders to form a spy ring. Tubman had proven herself invaluable at gathering clandestine information, forming allies and avoiding capture, as she led the Underground Railroad. In her new role, Tubman assumed leadership of a secret military mission in South Carolina's low country.

"First and foremost, her priorities would be to defeat and destroy the system of slavery and in doing so, to definitely defeat the Confederacy," said Brandi Brimmer, a history professor at Spelman College and slavery historian.

Tubman partnered with Colonel James Montgomery, an abolitionist who commanded the Second South Carolina Volunteers, a Black regiment. Together, the two planned a raid along the Combahee River, to rescue enslaved people, recruit freed men into the Union Army and obliterate some of the wealthiest rice plantations in the region.

Montgomery had around 300 men, including 50 from a Rhode Island Regiment and Tubman rounded up eight scouts, who helped her map the area and send word to enslaved people when the raid would take place.

"She was fearless and she was courageous," said Kate Clifford Larson, historian and author of Bound for the Promised Land: Harriet Tubman, Portrait of an American Hero. "She had a sensibility. She could get Black people to trust her and the Union officers knew that they were not trusted by the local people."

Overnight Raids Launch From the River

The night of June 1, 1863, Tubman and Montgomery, on a federal ship the John Adams, led two other gunboats, the Sentinel and Harriet A. Weed, out of the St. Helena Sound towards the Combahee River. En route, the Sentinel ran aground, causing troops from that ship to transfer to the other two boats.

As explained in Catherine Clinton's book, Harriet Tubman: The Road to Freedom, Tubman, who was illiterate, couldn't write down any intelligence she gathered. Instead, she committed everything to memory, guiding the ships towards strategic points near the shore where fleeing slaves were waiting and Confederate property could be destroyed, all while leading the steamers away from known torpedoes.

"They needed to take gunboats up the river," said Clinton. "They could have been blown up if they hadn't had her intelligence."

Around 2:30 a.m. on June 2, the John Adams and the Harriet A. Weed split up along the river to conduct different raids. Tubman led 150 men on the John Adams toward the fugitives. Tubman, later commenting on the raid, said once the signal was given, she saw slaves running everywhere, with women carrying babies, crying children, squealing pigs, chickens and pots of rice. Rebels tried chasing down the slaves, firing their guns on them. One girl was reportedly killed.

As the escapees ran to the shore, Black troops in rowboats transported them to the ships, but chaos ensued in the process. Tubman, who didn't speak the region's Gullah dialect, reportedly went on deck and sang a popular song from the abolitionist movement that calmed the group down.

More than 700 escaped slavery and made it onto the gunboats. Troops also disembarked near Field's Point, torching plantations, fields, mills, warehouses and mansions, causing a humiliating defeat for the Confederacy, including the loss of a pontoon bridge shot to pieces by the gunboats.

Tubman Was Recognized a Hero (But Not Paid)

The ships docked in Beaufort, South Carolina, where a reporter from the Wisconsin State Journal heard what had happened on the Combahee River. He wrote a story without a byline about the "She-Moses" but never mentioned Tubman's name. He wrote that Montgomery's "gallant band of 300 soldiers under the guidance of a Black woman, dashed into the enemies' country, struck a bold and effective blow, destroying millions of dollars worth of commissary store, cotton and lordly dwellings, and striking terror to the heart of the rebeldom brought off bear 800 slaves and thousands of dollars worth of property, without losing a man or receiving a scratch."

But Tubman's anonymity came to an end in July 1863 when Franklin Sanborn, the editor of Boston's Commonwealth newspaper, picked up the story and named Harriet Tubman, a friend of his, as the heroine.

Despite the mission's success, including the recruitment of at least 100 freedmen into the Union Army, Tubman was not compensated for her efforts on the Combahee Ferry Raid. She had petitioned the government several times to be paid for her duties as a soldier. "She was denied because she was a woman," says Larson.

"By the time we get to the Emancipation Proclamation, we have Lincoln setting out concrete spaces for Black men and their recognition in military service," said Brimmer. "But there's not really a vision for the work of women who function in the military bearing arms, particularly Black women."

Tubman would eventually get a pension, but only as the widow of a Black Union soldier she married after the war, not for her courageous service as a soldier.

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After the Underground Railroad, Harriet Tubman Led a Brazen Civil War Raid | HISTORY

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Tubman applied intelligence she learned as an Underground Railroad conductor to lead the Combahee Ferry Raid that freed more than 700 from slavery.

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Early Life of Clara Barton

She was born Clarissa Harlowe Barton on December 25, 1821 in Oxford, Massachusetts, into an abolitionist family. It's reported her love of nursing started when her oldest brother experienced a serious head injury and she nursed him diligently for two years.

After receiving a formal education, Barton became a teacher at the age of 17. Twelve years later, she founded and was headmaster of a free school in New Jersey where 600 students were eventually enrolled. She left the school after the school board voted to replace her as headmaster with a man.

Barton then moved to Washington, D.C., and became a clerk for the U.S. Patent Office, earning pay equal to her male counterparts. "I may sometimes be willing to teach for nothing, but if paid at all, I shall never do a man's work for less than a man's pay," Barton said later.
READ MORE: Clara Barton: 7 Facts about the Civil War Nurse and Medical Pioneer
Civil War Service Begins

Barton was working for the Patent Office when the Civil War broke out on April 12, 1861. A week later, soldiers of the 6th Massachusetts Infantry were attacked by southern sympathizers, and the wounded flooded the streets of Washington, D.C.

A makeshift hospital was created in the uncompleted Capitol Building. Though often described as shy, Barton felt an urgency to care for the injured and brought them food, clothing and other necessities.

As the need for care and medical provisions grew, Barton gathered provisions from her home and spearheaded a campaign to solicit additional relief items from friends and the public.

More importantly, she spent hours with the homesick, suffering soldiers, nursing them back to health, writing letters and offering kind words, prayers and comfort. With no formal training, her nursing expertise came from common sense, courage and compassion.
WATCH: Women's History Videos on HISTORY Vault
'Angel of the Battlefield'

After witnessing the sad state of battle-weary soldiers in Washington, D.C., Barton realized the greatest need for care and supplies was in the makeshift field hospitals near the front lines. In 1862, she received permission to take bandages and other supplies to a battlefield hospital after the Battle of Cedar Mountain in Northern Virginia. From then on, she traveled with the Union Army.

On September 17, 1862, Barton arrived at the now-infamous Antietam cornfield during the Battle of Antietam. After dropping off her wagon load of medical supplies to grateful surgeons struggling to make bandages out of corn husks, she worked long into the night assisting the surgeons, cooking food for the soldiers and tending the wounded, despite nearby cannon fire and bullets flying overhead.

One unlucky soldier was shot and killed as Barton tended him. Said Barton later, "A ball has passed between my body and the right arm which supported him, cutting through his chest from shoulder to shoulder. There was no more to be done for him and I left him to his rest. I have never mended that hole in my sleeve. I wonder if a soldier ever does mend a bullet hole in his coat?"

Barton made a profound impression on Union army surgeons at Antietam. One surgeon, Dr. James Dunn, said of Barton, "In my feeble estimation, General McClellan, with all his laurels, sinks into insignificance beside the true heroine of the age, the angel of the battlefield."

Barton continued to assist the Union Army at Petersburg, Virginia, and Fredericksburg and Fort Wagoner, South Carolina, among other places. But even her best efforts couldn't conquer the disease and infection so rampant in warfare.

In Charleston, South Carolina, she became seriously ill and was transported to Hilton Head Island, then to Washington, D.C., to recuperate. She solicited more supplies and, once recovered, went back to the battlefield.

Organizing an Unprecedented Letter Campaign

Whenever possible, Barton recorded the personal information of the soldiers she cared for. As the war progressed, she was often called upon to correspond with family members of missing, wounded or dead soldiers. After returning to Washington, D.C., in January 1865 after the death of her brother, she continued her letter-writing campaign from her home.

Barton's efforts didn't go unnoticed, and President Abraham Lincoln selected her as General Correspondent for the Friends of Paroled Prisoners. Her job was to find missing soldiers and, if possible, inform their families of their fate.

It was a daunting yet important job which she couldn't do alone. She formed the Bureau of Records of Missing Men of the Armies of the United States and - along with twelve clerks - researched the status of tens of thousands of soldiers and answered over 63,000 letters.

By the time Barton left her post and presented her final report to Congress in 1869, she and her assistants had identified 22,000 missing soldiers, but she believed at least 40,000 were still unaccounted for.

Founding the American Red Cross

In 1869, Barton traveled to Europe for rest and learned about the International Red Cross in Geneva, Switzerland, which had established an international agreement known as the Geneva Treaty (now part of the Geneva Convention), which laid out rules for the care of the sick and wounded in wartime.

When the Franco-Prussian War broke out in 1870, Barton - never one to sit on the sidelines - wore a red cross made of red ribbon and helped deliver supplies to needy war-zone citizens.

After Barton returned to the United States, she solicited political support for America to enter the Geneva Treaty. President Chester A. Arthur finally signed the treaty in 1882 and the American Association of the Red Cross (later called the American Red Cross) was born, with Barton at its helm.

Leading the American Red Cross

As head of the American Red Cross, Barton focused mainly on disaster relief, including helping victims of the deadly Johnstown Flood in Pennsylvania, and devastating hurricanes and tidal waves in South Carolina and Galveston, Texas. She also sent relief supplies overseas to victims of war and famine.

Barton played an integral role in the passing of the "American Amendment" to the Geneva Treaty in 1884 which expanded the role of the International Red Cross to include assisting victims of natural disasters.

But everything wasn't rosy in Barton's Red Cross. She was reportedly an independent workaholic who fiercely protected her vision of what the Red Cross should be. She also suffered from depression, although nothing rallied her more than an urgent call for help. Her authoritarian leadership approach and supposed mismanagement of funds eventually forced her to resign her post in 1904.

In 1905, Barton established the National First Aid Association of America which made first aid kits and worked closely with local fire and police departments to create ambulance brigades.

Clara Barton's Legacy

Barton served on sixteen battlefields during the Civil War. Whether working tirelessly behind the scenes to procure supplies, prepare meals and arrange makeshift hospitals or tending the wounded during some of the goriest battles in American history, she earned the respect of countless soldiers, officers, surgeons and politicians. She almost singlehandedly changed the widely-held viewpoint that women were too weak to help on battlefields.

The American Red Cross wouldn't exist as it is today without Barton's influence. She believed in equal rights and helped everyone regardless of race, gender or economic station. She brought attention to the great need of disaster victims and streamlined many first aid, emergency preparedness and emergency response procedures still used by the American Red Cross.

Clara Barton died on April 12, 1912, at her home in Glen Echo, Maryland at age 91. A monument in her honor stands at Antietam National Battlefield.

Sources

American Red Cross Founder Clara Barton. American Red Cross.

Biography: Clara Barton. Civil War Trust.

Clara Barton. Clara Barton Missing Soldiers Office Museum.

Clara Barton and the American Red Cross. Clara Barton Birthplace Museum.

Clara Barton at Antietam. National Park Service.

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She was born Clarissa Harlowe Barton on December 25, 1821 in Oxford, Massachusetts, into an abolitionist family. It's reported her love of nursing started when her oldest brother experienced a serious head injury and she nursed him diligently for two years. After receiving a formal education, Barton became a teacher at the age of 17.

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Contents

1. Henry Dunant and the Origins of the Red Cross

2. Clara Barton Brings the Red Cross to the US

3. History of the American Red Cross

The Red Cross is an international humanitarian network founded in 1863 in Switzerland, with chapters worldwide that provide assistance to victims of disasters, armed conflict and health crises. The Red Cross's roots date to 1859, when businessman Henry Dunant witnessed the bloody aftermath of the Battle of Solferino in Italy, in which there was little medical support for injured soldiers. Dunant went on to advocate for the establishment of national relief organizations made up of trained volunteers who could offer assistance to war-wounded soldiers, regardless of which side of the fighting they were on.

Henry Dunant and the Origins of the Red Cross

In 1859, Swiss businessman Henry Dunant was traveling in northern Italy when he witnessed the aftermath of a bloody battle between Franco-Sardinian and Austrian forces near the small village of Solferino.

The fighting had left some 40,000 troops dead, wounded or missing, and both the armies, as well as the residents of the region, were ill-equipped to deal with the situation.

By 1862, Dunant published a book, A Memory of Solferino, in which he advocated for the establishment of national relief organizations made up of trained volunteers who could offer assistance to war-wounded soldiers, whichever side of the fighting they were on. The following year, Dunant was part of a Swiss-based committee that put together a plan for national relief associations.

The group, which eventually became known as the International Committee of the Red Cross, adopted the symbol of a red cross on a white background, an inverse of the Swiss flag, as a way to identify medical workers on the battlefield. (In the 1870s, the Ottoman Empire began using a red crescent as its emblem, in place of a red cross; many Islamic countries continue the practice today.)

In late 1863, the first national society was started in the German state of Württemberg.

And in 1864, 12 countries signed the original Geneva Convention, which called for the humane treatment of sick and wounded soldiers, regardless of nationality, and the civilians who came to their aid.

Dunant experienced financial setbacks that forced him to declare bankruptcy in 1867, and he resigned from the Red Cross.

However, in 1901, he received the first-ever Nobel Peace Prize; his citation for the award stated: "Without you, the Red Cross, the supreme humanitarian achievement of the nineteenth century would probably have never been undertaken."
READ MORE: 6 Things You May Not Know About the Nobel Prizes
Clara Barton Brings the Red Cross to the US

After the U.S. Civil War broke out in 1861, Clara Barton, a former teacher then working in the U.S. Patent Office in Washington, D.C., voluntarily began delivering food and supplies to Union soldiers on the front lines.

At the end of the war, Barton, who'd earned the nickname "Angel of the Battlefield," received permission from President Abraham Lincoln to operate the Missing Soldiers Office, to help locate missing troops for their families and friends.

Over the course of several years, Barton and her small staff received more than 63,000 letters asking for help and were able to track down some 22,000 men.

In the late 1860s, Barton, a Massachusetts native, traveled to Europe to recuperate from years of tireless work during the war, and while there she learned about the Red Cross movement.

Upon her return to the U.S., she launched a years-long campaign to get the U.S. to ratify the Geneva Convention of 1864; it did so in 1882, a year after Barton founded the American Red Cross.

Under Barton's leadership, the Red Cross focused on helping victims of peacetime disasters, including the 1889 Johnstown Flood in Pennsylvania, which killed more than 2,000 people, and the 1893 hurricane in South Carolina's Sea Islands that left some 30,000 people homeless, most of them African American.

In 1898, the American Red Cross aided the U.S. military for the first time when it provided medical care to soldiers in the Spanish-American War.

Barton resigned as head of the Red Cross in 1904, when she was 83.

History of the American Red Cross

In the early 20th century, the American Red Cross expanded its efforts to include such public programs as first aid training and water safety.

During World War I, the organization experienced significant growth, going from some 100 local chapters in 1914 to more than 3,800 chapters four years later. The Red Cross recruited 20,000 nurses for military service and provided support for U.S. and Allied troops as well as civilian refugees.

In World War II, the organization's efforts included recruiting more than 104,000 nurses for the armed forces and sending more than 300,000 tons of supplies abroad. In 1941, the Red Cross started a national blood donation program to collect blood for U.S. armed forces; by 1945, the service had collected more than 13 million pints of blood.

In 1948, the American Red Cross launched the nation's first blood program for civilians. In 2017, the program provided approximately 40 percent of America's blood and blood products.

The Red Cross supported U.S. service members and their families during the Korean War, the Vietnam War and conflicts in the Middle East, as well as providing aid to victims of disasters, including Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the 2010 earthquake in Haiti and Hurricane Sandy in 2012.
READ MORE: 7 Red Cross Facts
Sources

History of American Red Cross. American Red Cross.
Henry Dunant biography. Nobelprize.org.
History of the ICRC. International Committee of the Red Cross.
Clara Barton and U.S. Civil War. Clara Barton Missing Soldiers Office Museum.
Red Cross Services to the Armed Forces: Then and Now. American Red Cross.

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Henry Dunant and the Origins of the Red Cross Clara Barton Brings the Red Cross to the US History of the American Red Cross The Red Cross is an international humanitarian network founded in 1863 in Switzerland, with chapters worldwide that provide assistance to victims of disasters, armed conflict and health crises.

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Founding Fathers and Slavery

Despite the long history of slavery in the British colonies in North America, and the continued existence of slavery in America until 1865, the amendment was the first explicit mention of the institution of slavery in the U.S. Constitution.

While America's founding fathers enshrined the importance of liberty and equality in the nation's founding documents-including the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution-they conspicuously failed to mention slavery, which was legal in all 13 colonies in 1776.

Many of the founders themselves owned enslaved workers, and though they acknowledged that slavery was morally wrong, they effectively pushed the question of how to eradicate it to future generations of Americans.

Thomas Jefferson, who left a particularly complex legacy regarding slavery, signed a law banning the importation of enslaved people from Africa in 1807. Still, the institution became ever more entrenched in American society and economy-particularly in the South.

By 1861, when the Civil War broke out, more than 4 million people (nearly all of them of African descent) were enslaved in 15 southern and border states.

Emancipation Proclamation

Though Abraham Lincoln abhorred slavery as a moral evil, he also wavered over the course of his career (and as president) on how to deal with the peculiar institution.

But by 1862, he had become convinced that emancipating enslaved people in the South would help the Union crush the Confederate rebellion and win the Civil War. Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation, which took effect in 1863, announced that all enslaved people held in the states "then in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free."

But the Emancipation Proclamation in itself did not end slavery in the United States, as it only applied to the 11 Confederate states then at war against the Union, and only to the portion of those states not already under Union control. To make emancipation permanent would take a constitutional amendment abolishing the institution of slavery itself.

Battle Over the 13th Amendment

In April 1864, the U.S. Senate passed a proposed amendment banning slavery with the necessary two-thirds majority. But the amendment faltered in the House of Representatives, as more and more Democrats refused to support it (especially during an election year).

As November approached, Lincoln's reelection looked far from assured, but Union military victories greatly helped his cause, and he ended up defeating his Democratic opponent, General George McClellan, by a resounding margin.

When Congress reconvened in December 1864, the emboldened Republicans put a vote on the proposed amendment at the top of their agenda. More than any previous point in his presidency, Lincoln threw himself in the legislative process, inviting individual representatives to his office to discuss the amendment and putting pressure on border-state Unionists (who had previously opposed it) to change their position.

Lincoln also authorized his allies to entice House members with plum positions and other inducements, reportedly telling them: "I leave it to you to determine how it shall be done; but remember that I am President of the United States, clothed with immense power, and I expect you to procure those votes."

Hampton Roads Conference

Last-minute drama ensued when rumors started flying that Confederate peace commissioners were en route to Washington (or already there), putting the future of the amendment in serious doubt.

But Lincoln assured Congressman James Ashley, who had introduced the bill into the House, that no peace commissioners were in the city, and the vote went ahead.

As it turned out, there were in fact Confederate representatives on their way to Union headquarters in Virginia. On February 3, at the Hampton Roads Conference, Lincoln met with them aboard a steamboat called the River Queen, but the meeting ended quickly after he refused to grant any concessions.

13th Amendment Passes

On January 31, 1865, the House of Representatives passed the proposed amendment with a vote of 119-56, just over the required two-thirds majority. The following day, Lincoln approved a joint resolution of Congress submitting it to the state legislatures for ratification.

But he would not see final ratification: Lincoln was assassinated on April 14, 1865, and the necessary number of states did not ratify the 13th Amendment until December 6.

While Section 1 of the 13th Amendment outlawed chattel slavery and involuntary servitude ( except as punishment for a crime), Section 2 gave the U.S. Congress the power "to enforce this article by appropriate legislation."

Black Codes

The year after the amendment's passage, Congress used this power to pass the nation's first civil rights bill, the Civil Rights Act of 1866. The law invalidated the so-called black codes, those laws put into place in the former Confederate states that governed the behavior of Black people, effectively keeping them dependent on their former owners.

Congress also required the former Confederate states to ratify the 13th Amendment in order to regain representation in the federal government.

Together with the 14th and 15th Amendments, also ratified during the Reconstruction era, the 13th Amendment sought to establish equality for black Americans. Despite these efforts, the struggle to achieve full equality and guarantee the civil rights of all Americans has continued well into the 21st century. (It wasn't until February 2013 that Mississippi officially ratified the 13th Amendment, one of the later states to do so.)

Sources

13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: Abolition of Slavery (1865), OurDocuments.gov.
The Thirteenth Amendment, Constitution Center.
Eric Foner, The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery ( New York: W.W. Norton, 2010).
Doris Kearns Goodwin, Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln

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13th Amendment - Simplified, Definition & Passed | HISTORY

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The 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which abolished slavery, passed in Congress during the Civil War before being ratified in late 1865.

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Creation of the Freedmen's Bureau

The Freedmen's Bureau was established by an act of Congress on March 3, 1865, two months before Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered to the Union's Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House, Virginia, effectively ending the Civil War.

Intended as a temporary agency to last the duration of the war and one year afterward, the bureau was placed under the authority of the War Department and the majority of its original employees were Civil War soldiers.

Did you know? Howard University, a historically all-Black school in Washington, D.C., was established in 1867 and named for Oliver Howard, one of its founders and the head of the Freedmen's Bureau. He served as the university's president from 1869 to 1874.

Oliver Otis Howard, a Union general, was appointed commissioner of the bureau in May 1865. Howard, a Maine native who attended Bowdoin College and the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, reportedly had been planning to become a minister when the Civil War broke out.

During the war, Howard, nicknamed the "Christian General," fought in major battles, including Antietam and Gettysburg, and lost an arm in the Battle of Fair Oaks in 1862.

Reconstruction

America's Reconstruction era was a turbulent time, as the nation struggled with how to rebuild the South and transition the 4 million newly freed Blacks from slavery to a free-labor society.

"There was no tradition of government responsibility for a huge refugee population and no bureaucracy to administer a large welfare, employment and land reform program," according to The Freedmen's Bureau and Reconstruction, edited by Paul Cimbala and Randall Miller. "Congress and the army and the Freedmen's Bureau were groping in the dark. They created the precedents."

From the start, the Bureau faced resistance from a variety of sources, including many white Southerners. Another leading opponent was President Andrew Johnson, who assumed office in April 1865 following the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.

When Congress introduced a bill in February 1866 to extend the bureau's tenure and give it new legal powers, Johnson vetoed the proposed legislation on the grounds that it interfered with states' rights, gave preference to one group of citizens over another and would impose a huge financial burden on the federal government, among other issues.

In July of that same year, Congress overrode the president's veto and passed a revised version of the bill. However, Johnson became embroiled in a bitter fight with the Radical Republicans in Congress, who viewed the president's Reconstruction policies as too lenient, and the Freedmen's Bureau suffered as a result.

Johnson's actions, which included pardoning many former Confederates and restoring their land, as well as removing bureau employees he thought were too sympathetic to Black people, served to undermine the bureau's authority.

The bureau's mission was further muddled by the fact that even among the agency's supporters in Congress and its own personnel, there was disagreement over what type of assistance the government should provide and for how long.

Freedmen's Bureau's Successes and Failures

The Freedmen's Bureau was organized into districts covering the 11 former rebel states, the border states of Maryland, Kentucky and West Virginia and Washington, D.C. Each district was headed by an assistant commissioner.

The bureau's achievements varied from one location to another and from one agent to the next. Over its course of existence, the bureau was underfunded and understaffed, with just 900 agents at its peak.

Bureau agents, who acted essentially as social workers and were frequently the only federal representatives in Southern communities, were subjected to ridicule and violence from whites (including terrorist organizations such as the Ku Klux Klan), who viewed the agents as interfering in local affairs by trying to assist Blacks. While some agents were corrupt or incompetent, others were hardworking and brave people who made significant contributions.

During its years of operation, the Freedmen's Bureau fed millions of people, built hospitals and provided medical aid, negotiated labor contracts for ex-slaves and settled labor disputes. It also helped former slaves legalize marriages and locate lost relatives, and assisted Black veterans.

The bureau also was instrumental in building thousands of schools for Blacks, and helped to found such colleges as Howard University in Washington, D.C., Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee, and Hampton University in Hampton, Virginia. The bureau frequently worked in conjunction with the American Missionary Association and other private charity organizations.

Additionally, the bureau tried, with little success, to promote land redistribution. However, most of the confiscated or abandoned Confederate land was eventually restored to the original owners, so there was little opportunity for Black land ownership, which was seen as a means to success in society.

Freedmen's Bureau's Demise

In the summer of 1872, Congress, responding in part to pressure from white Southerners, dismantled the Freedmen's Bureau.

Since that time, historians have debated the agency's effectiveness. A lack of funding, coupled with the politics of race and Reconstruction, meant that the bureau was not able to carry out all of its initiatives, and it failed to provide long-term protection for Blacks or ensure any real measure of racial equality.

However, the bureau's efforts did signal the introduction of the federal government into issues of social welfare and labor relations. As noted in The Freedmen's Bureau and Reconstruction, "The Bureau helped awaken Americans to the promise of freedom, and for a time, the Bureau's physical presence in the South made palpable to many citizens the abstract principles of equal access to the law and free labor."

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The Freedmen's Bureau was established by an act of Congress on March 3, 1865, two months before Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered to the Union's Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House, Virginia, effectively ending the Civil War.

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Table of Contents

1. The Battle of Chancellorsville Begins

2. Lee's Offensive at the Battle of Chancellorsville

3. Stonewall Jackson Dies in the Battle of Chancellorsville

4. Confederate Victory in The Battle of Chancellorsville

The Battle of Chancellorsville (April 30-May 6, 1863) was a huge victory for the Confederacy and General Robert E. Lee during the Civil War, though it is also famous for being the battle in which Confederate General Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson was mortally wounded. Fought in Spotsylvania County, Virginia, Lee's daring decision to face a force twice his size-Union General Joseph Hooker's Army of the Potomac-by splitting his own army in two made the Battle of Chancellorsville go down in history as Lee's most significant tactical victory.

The Battle of Chancellorsville Begins

Before the Battle of Chancellorsville, the Union Army had undergone a shakeup in command. General Ambrose Burnside, having lost the disastrous Battle of Fredericksburg the previous December, had been replaced by General Joseph Hooker. Hooker had spent the spring training his men to prepare for another face-off with Confederate troops. This time, he hoped to win. His goal was nothing less than the capture of the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia.

The numbers going into the Battle of Chancellorsville were on Hooker's side: He commanded about 115,000 men, while Lee's troops numbered just 60,000, perhaps the biggest Union advantage in the Civil War. Two divisions of the Confederate Army were absent, serving in Southern Virginia under General James Longstreet.

On April 27, 1863, after putting two-thirds of his forces in front of Fredericksburg to feign a frontal assault, Hooker led the other third of his Army of the Potomac across the Rappahannock River. He hoped to come up behind Confederate trenches near Fredericksburg and catch the enemy by surprise.

Lee's Offensive at the Battle of Chancellorsville

Hooker's gambit was outdone by General Robert E. Lee's quick thinking. Lee, too, divided his force, retaining 10,000 troops led by Jubal Early to hold Fredericksburg before marching the rest of his army West to meet Hooker head-on.

The two armies clashed in an open field just beyond the Wilderness, a forest west of Chancellorsville, on May 1, 1863. Despite his superior numbers, Hooker had his men fall back to defensive positions, opening the door for Lee to hatch the most brilliant offensive plan of his career.

Lee split his army again, sending his right-hand man Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson to attack the Union's right flank, where they clashed with the Union XI Corps under Major General Oliver Otis Howard, caving in the Union line.

Stonewall Jackson Dies in the Battle of Chancellorsville

Lee and Jackson's most celebrated victory also led to Jackson's death. On May 2, Jackson marched his 28,000 troops nearly 15 miles to attack Hooker's exposed flank, inflicting massive Union casualties. Half of Hooker's forces were destroyed.

But Jackson's victory would be his last. As the sun set, Jackson led his men to scout ahead in the forest. A North Carolina regiment opened fire, mistaking them for enemy cavalry. A bullet struck Jackson, shattering the bone above his left shoulder. General J. E. B. Stuart took over his command as doctors amputated Jackson's left arm. While he was in a field hospital, Lee wrote to Jackson, "Could I have directed events, I would have chosen for the good of the country to be disabled in your stead."

Jackson died from pneumonia on May 10, 1863. He was 39 years old. The South mourned their war hero, who was buried in Lexington, Virginia.

Did you know? Author Stephen Crane's 1895 novel, The Red Badge of Courage, is based on the Battle of Chancellorsville.

Confederate Victory in The Battle of Chancellorsville

On May 3, 1863, a still-reeling Hooker found himself fending off attacks from General Lee himself.

Lee again outwitted him, moving on the rear of the 27,000 troops Hooker had left behind.

Between May 5 May 6, Hooker and his rain-soaked troops re-crossed the Rappahannock to beat a hasty retreat to Washington, D.C. He had lost 17,278 casualties to Lee's 12,826.

Lee, now in a position of power even though he'd lost Jackson, would soon head north, where he'd again face off with Union troops in the Battle of Gettysburg.

President Abraham Lincoln, hearing of Hooker's retreat, exclaimed, "My God! My God! What will the country say?"

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Battle of Chancellorsville - Who Won, Significance & Facts | HISTORY

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The Battle of Chancellorsville, fought from April 30 to May 6, 1863 in Virginia, is widely considered to be Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee's greatest victory during the American Civil War.

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Harriet Beecher Stowe's Early Life

Stowe was born into a prominent family on June 14, 1811, in Litchfield, Connecticut. Her father, Lyman Beecher, was a Presbyterian preacher and her mother, Roxana Foote Beecher, died when Stowe was just five years old.

Stowe had twelve siblings (some were half-siblings born after her father remarried), many of whom were social reformers and involved in the abolitionist movement. But it was her sister Catharine who likely influenced her the most.

Catharine Beecher strongly believed girls should be afforded the same educational opportunities as men, although she never supported women's suffrage. In 1823, she founded the Hartford Female Seminary, one of few schools of the era that educated women. Stowe attended the school as a student and later taught there.

Early Writing Career

Writing came naturally to Stowe, as it did to her father and many of her siblings. But it wasn't until she moved to Cincinnati, Ohio, with Catharine and her father in 1832 that she found her true writing voice.

In Cincinnati, Stowe taught at the Western Female Institute, another school founded by Catharine, where she wrote many short stories and articles and co-authored a textbook.

With Ohio located just across the river from Kentucky -a state where slavery was legal-Stowe often encountered runaway enslaved people and heard their heart-wrenching stories. This, and a visit to a Kentucky plantation, fueled her abolitionist fervor.

Stowe's uncle invited her to join the Semi-Colon Club, a co-ed literary group of prominent writers including teacher Calvin Ellis Stowe, the widower husband of her dear, deceased friend Eliza. The club gave Stowe the chance to hone her writing skills and network with publishers and influential people in the literary world.

Stowe and Calvin married in January 1836. He encouraged her writing and she continued to churn out short stories and sketches. Along the way, she gave birth to six children. In 1846, she published The Mayflower: Or, Sketches of Scenes and Characters Among the Descendants of the Pilgrims.

"Uncle Tom's Cabin"

In 1850, Calvin became a professor at Bowdoin College and moved his family to Maine. That same year, Congress passed the Fugitive Slave Act, which allowed runaway enslaved people to be hunted, caught and returned to their owners, even in states where slavery was outlawed.

In 1851, Stowe's 18-month-old son died. The tragedy helped her understand the heartbreak enslaved mothers went through when their children were wrenched from their arms and sold. The Fugitive Slave Law and her own great loss led Stowe to write about the plight of enslaved people.

Uncle Tom's Cabin tells the story of Tom, an honorable, unselfish slave who's taken from his wife and children to be sold at auction. On a transport ship, he saves the life of Eva, a white girl from a wealthy family. Eva's father purchases Tom, and Tom and Eva become good friends.

In the meantime, Eliza-another enslaved worker from the same plantation as Tom-learns of plans to sell her son Harry. Eliza escapes the plantation with Harry, but they're hunted down by a slave catcher whose views on slavery are eventually changed by Quakers.

Eva becomes ill and, on her deathbed, asks her father to free his enslaved workers. He agrees but is killed before he can, and Tom is sold to a ruthless new owner who employs violence and coercion to keep his enslaved workers in line.

After helping two enslaved people escape, Tom is beaten to death for not revealing their whereabouts. Throughout his life, he clings to his steadfast Christian faith, even as he lay dying.

Uncle Tom's Cabin 's strong Christian message reflected Stowe's belief that slavery and the Christian doctrine were at odds; in her eyes, slavery was clearly a sin.

The book was first published in serial form (1851-1852) as a group of sketches in the National Era and then as a two-volume novel. The book sold 10,000 copies the first week. Over the next year, it sold 300,000 copies in America and over one million copies in Britain.

Stowe became an overnight success and went on tour in the United States and Britain promoting Uncle Tom's Cabin and her abolitionist views.

But it was considered unbecoming for women of Stowe's era to speak publicly to large audiences of men. So, despite her fame, she seldom spoke about the book in public, even at events held in her honor. Instead, Calvin or one of her brothers spoke for her.

The Impact of Uncle Tom's Cabin

Uncle Tom's Cabin brought slavery into the limelight like never before, especially in the northern states.

Its characters and their daily experiences made people uncomfortable as they realized enslaved people had families and hopes and dreams like everyone else, yet were considered chattel and exposed to terrible living conditions and violence. It made slavery personal and relatable instead of just some "peculiar institution" in the South.

It also sparked outrage. In the North, the book stoked anti-slavery views. According to The New York Times Sunday Book Review, Frederick Douglass celebrated that Stowe had "baptized with holy fire myriads who before cared nothing for the bleeding slave." Abolitionists grew from a relatively small, outspoken group to a large and potent political force.

But in the South, Uncle Tom's Cabin infuriated slave owners who preferred to keep the darker side of slavery to themselves. They felt attacked and misrepresented-despite Stowe's including benevolent slave owners in the book-and stubbornly held tight to their belief that slavery was an economic necessity and enslaved people were inferior people incapable of taking care of themselves.

In some parts of the South, the book was illegal. As it gained popularity, divisions between the North and South became further entrenched. By the mid-1850s, the Republican Party had formed to help prevent slavery from spreading.

It's speculated that abolitionist sentiment fueled by the release of Uncle Tom's Cabin helped usher Abraham Lincoln into office after the election of 1860 and played a role in starting the Civil War.

It's widely reported that Lincoln said upon meeting Stowe at the White House in 1862, "So you're the little woman who wrote the book that made this great war," although the quote can't be proven.

Other Anti-Slavery Books

Uncle Tom's Cabin wasn't the only book Stowe wrote about slavery. In 1853, she published two books: A Key to Uncle Tom's Cabin, which offered documents and personal testimonies to verify the accuracy of the book, and Dred: A Tale of the Great Dismal Swamp, which reflected her belief that slavery demeaned society.

In 1859, Stowe published The Minister's Wooing, a romantic novel which touches on slavery and Calvinist theology.

Stowe's Later Years

In 1864, Calvin retired and moved his family to Hartford, Connecticut-their neighbor was Mark Twain-but the Stowes spent their winters in Mandarin, Florida. Stowe and her son Frederick established a plantation there and hired formerly enslaved people to work it. In 1873, she wrote Palmetto Leaves, a memoir promoting Florida life.

Controversy and heartache found Stowe again in her later years. In 1869, her article in The Atlantic accused English nobleman Lord Byron of an incestuous relationship with his half-sister that produced a child. The scandal diminished her popularity with the British people.

In 1871, Stowe's son Frederick drowned at sea and in 1872, Stowe's preacher brother Henry was accused of adultery with one of his parishioners. But no scandal ever reduced the massive impact her writings had on slavery and the literary world.

Stowe died on July 2, 1896, at her Connecticut home, surrounded by her family. According to her obituary, she died of a years-long "mental trouble," which became acute and caused "congestion of the brain and partial paralysis." She left behind a legacy of words and ideals which continue to challenge and inspire today.

Sources

Catharine Esther Beecher. National Women's History Museum.
Harriet B. Stowe. Ohio History Central.
Harriet Beecher Stowe House. National Park Service.
Harriet Beecher Stowe Obituary. The New York Times: On this Day.
Meet the Beecher Family. Harriet Beecher Stowe House.
The Impact of 'Uncle Tom's Cabin.' The New York Times.

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Stowe was born into a prominent family on June 14, 1811, in Litchfield, Connecticut. Her father, Lyman Beecher, was a Presbyterian preacher and her mother, Roxana Foote Beecher, died when Stowe was just five years old. Stowe had twelve siblings (some were half-siblings born after her father remarried), many of whom were social reformers and involved in the abolitionist movement.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Harriet Beecher Stowe's anti-slavery novel, Uncle Tom's Cabin, is published. The novel sold 300,000 copies within three months and was so widely read that when President Abraham Lincoln met Stowe in 1862, he reportedly said, "So this is the little lady who made this big war."

Stowe was born in 1811, the seventh child of the famous Congregationalist minister Lyman Beecher. She studied at private schools in Connecticut, then taught in Hartford from 1827 until her father moved to Cincinnati in 1832. She accompanied him and continued to teach while writing stories and essays. In 1836, she married Calvin Ellis Stowe, with whom she had seven children. She published her first book, Mayflower, in 1843.

While living in Cincinnati, Stowe encountered fugitive enslaved people and the Underground Railroad. Later, she wrote Uncle Tom's Cabin in reaction to recently tightened fugitive slave laws. The book had a major influence on the way the American public viewed slavery. The book established Stowe's reputation as a woman of letters. She traveled to England in 1853, where she was welcomed as a literary hero. Along with Ralph Waldo Emerson, she became one of the original contributors to The Atlantic, which launched in November 1857. In 1863, when Lincoln announced the end of slavery, she danced in the streets. Stowe continued to write throughout her life and died in 1896.
READ MORE: Abolitionist Movement

Fact Check

We strive for accuracy and fairness. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! HISTORY reviews and updates its content regularly to ensure it is complete and accurate.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Harriet Beecher Stowe's anti-slavery novel, Uncle Tom's Cabin, is published. The novel sold 300,000 copies within three months and was so widely read that when President Abraham Lincoln met Stowe in 1862, he reportedly said, "So this is the little lady who made this big war."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Sherman's Early Years

With an unusual middle name received from his father, a prominent lawyer and judge who admired the Shawnee chief Tecumseh, William Tecumseh Sherman was born February 8, 1820, in Lancaster, Ohio.

The death of Sherman's father when he was 9 left his mother a poor widow with 11 children. Most of the Sherman children were fostered out to live with other families.

Sherman, nicknamed "Cump," was raised by John Ewing, a family friend who was an Ohio senator and Cabinet member. Sherman later married his foster sister, Ellen Ewing, and the couple had eight children.

Sherman was not the only successful member of his family. An elder brother became a federal judge, and younger brother John Sherman was elected to the U.S. Senate and later served as both secretary of the treasury and secretary of state. Several of his Ewing foster siblings also rose to prominence.

West Point and Early Military Career

When Sherman was 16, John Ewing secured him a position at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. There he met and befriended several future military leaders who he would fight alongside - and against - during the Civil War.

Sherman graduated in 1840, ranked sixth in his class. He excelled in the academic side of his training, but was dismissive of West Point's strict set of rules and demerits, a trait he would carry with him throughout his military career.

He was stationed in Georgia and South Carolina, and fought in the Second Seminole War in Florida. This first introduction to life in the South left a lasting favorable impression.

Unlike many of his West Point classmates, Sherman did not see action in the Mexican-American War. Instead, he was stationed in Northern California, which was just on the verge of the California Gold Rush. He spent several years there as an administrative officer, eventually rising to the rank of captain.

But with little combat experience, Sherman realized future advancement was unlikely. He resigned his commission in 1853, but remained in California with his growing family.

Sherman Before the Civil War

Sherman became a banker, but was overwhelmed by the frenetic pace of San Francisco, a city teeming with an influx of speculators. Sherman's bank failed in 1857, and he briefly moved to Kansas, where he practiced law.

Sherman returned to the South in 1859, when he accepted a position as superintendent of the Louisiana State Seminary of Learning and Military Academy (now Louisiana State University). He was a popular headmaster and was very fond of the friends he made there.

Sherman was not an ardent opponent of slavery, but he was vehemently against the idea of Southern secession over the issue. He repeatedly warned his Southern friends of the dangers they faced taking on the more prosperous, industrialized North, but to no avail. He resigned his position after Louisiana seceded in January 1861.

For several months, he worked as the president of a St. Louis streetcar company. After the Confederate States of America attacked Fort Sumter, Sherman worried that President Abraham Lincoln was not committing enough troops to bring the war to a swift end. But he overcame his doubts, and his brother John secured him a commission in the U.S Army.

First Battle of Bull Run

Sherman became colonel of the new 13th Infantry Regiment. Before that unit was fully activated, he led a brigade at the First Battle of Bull Run in July 1861. The Union suffered a surprising defeat, but Sherman was praised for his actions, and Lincoln promoted him to brigadier general of volunteers.

Sherman's fears about the war escalated when he was transferred to Kentucky and the Army of the Cumberland. Sherman succeeded General Robert Anderson, but suffered grave doubts about his lack of men and supplies, as well as his own abilities.

Sherman called for 200,000 men, and was widely ridiculed in the press, some of which called him insane, an event that permanently soured Sherman on the media. In November 1861, Sherman was relieved of his duties and returned home to Ohio, suffering from depression and a nervous breakdown.

Sherman and Grant

He returned to service just weeks later, again assigned to the Western Theater. He supported Ulysses S. Grant at the successful Battle of Fort Donelson, Kentucky, and the two began to develop a close bond.

Now serving under Grant in the Army of West Tennessee, Sherman fought at the Battle of Shiloh in April 1862. Caught unprepared by the Confederate assault (he had dismissed intelligence reports on the size and placement of enemy troops), he rallied his troops for an organized retreat that prevented a rout, allowing Union forces to secure victory the following day.

He was promoted to major general of volunteers. Grant was heavily criticized for the losses at Shiloh and considered resigning, but Sherman convinced him to stay.

Sherman continued to serve with Grant in the West, culminating in the capture of the vital Confederate stronghold after the Siege of Vicksburg, Mississippi. Despite misgivings over Grant's unorthodox campaign and siege, which earned Grant more criticism (this time over his drinking), Sherman provided key logistical support.

When the city finally fell on July 4, 1863, the Union gained control of the Mississippi River, a key turning point in the war.

President Lincoln recognized the value of both men: Grant was put in charge of all troops in the West, and Sherman received an additional commission as brigadier general of the regular army.

At the head of the Army of the Tennessee, Sherman was criticized for his performance at the Battle of Chattanooga, although the Union eventually prevailed. He assumed control of all Western armies when Grant was transferred East to take command of all Union armies.

Sherman Takes Atlanta

In May 1864, Sherman set out for Atlanta, a center of Confederate industry. Sherman's troops were on the move for four months, as he squared off against Confederate Generals Joseph E. Johnston and John B. Hood. Hood was forced to abandon the city, and Sherman captured Atlanta in early September.

The city was nearly destroyed, although it is still debated whether the worst of the damage was done by Sherman's men or retreating Confederate troops. With Grant suffering devastating casualties in the East (while winning militarily), Sherman's victory in Atlanta helped Abraham Lincoln secure reelection to a second term.

By this time, Sherman was convinced that the Confederacy could only be brought to heel by the complete destruction of both its military and civilian ability to wage war. Despite his earlier fondness for the South and its people, his strategy of "total war" would bring devastation to the region, earning Sherman a deep level of hatred (some of which remains today).

Sherman himself loathed the impact of the fighting, but realized its necessity, famously saying, "War is cruelty. There is no use trying to reform it. The crueler it is, the sooner it will be over."

Sherman's March to the Sea

With the full support of both Lincoln and Grant, Sherman devised an unusual plan. In November 1864, he departed Atlanta with 60,000 troops, bound for the coastal port of Savannah.

He separated his men into two Corps, which tore through the countryside, destroying both military and civilian targets. Twisted railroad lines along the way became known as "Sherman's neckties."

Georgia's citizens lived in fear of advancing troops, but the rest of the country had no news of Sherman's March to the Sea. His distrust of the press led Sherman to ban reporters, and many Americans had no clue where the army went after leaving Atlanta.

Sherman's March to the Sea showcased his logistical brilliance. Marching in secret meant he had no connection to Union supplies, forcing his men to carry with them everything they would need. They foraged and stole food to supplement rations, and built pontoon bridges and roads to traverse the terrain.

Finally, in December, Sherman's troops showed up outside Savannah, which they easily occupied. Sherman wired the president on December 22, offering Lincoln the city as a Christmas gift.

Early in the new year, Sherman turned his attention north, marching his men through the Carolinas. South Carolina was treated perhaps even harsher than Georgia - the first state to secede was also the state where the Confederacy first fired shots on federal Fort Sumter. Most of the city of Columbia was burned to the ground.

By the spring, Sherman's army was in North Carolina, when news spread of Robert E. Lee's surrender at Appomattox.

Sherman's Post-Civil War Career

Sherman remained in the U.S. Army after the war. When Grant became president in 1869, Sherman assumed command of all U.S. forces.

He was criticized for the role he played in America's war on Native Americans in the West, but he himself was critical of U.S. mistreatment of the native population.

He retired from active duty in 1884, eventually settling in New York. He brushed aside repeated requests to run for political office, saying, "I will not accept if nominated, and will not serve if elected."

Sherman died in New York on February 14, 1891, at age 71, and was buried in St. Louis. In a final tribute from a former foe, Joseph E. Johnston served as pallbearer at Sherman's funeral. Refusing to don a hat as a sign of respect, Johnston caught a cold, which developed into pneumonia and died just weeks later.

Sources

William Tecumseh Sherman, American Battlefield Trust.
Citizen Sherman: A Life of William Tecumseh Sherman, by Michael Fellmann (Random House, 1995).
Fierce Patriot: The Tangled Lives of William Tecumseh Sherman, by Robert L. O'Connell (Random House, 2015)
William Tecumseh Sherman, About North Georgia.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
William Tecumseh Sherman - Biography, Civil War & Accomplishments

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
With an unusual middle name received from his father, a prominent lawyer and judge who admired the Shawnee chief Tecumseh, William Tecumseh Sherman was born February 8, 1820, in Lancaster, Ohio. The death of Sherman's father when he was 9 left his mother a poor widow with 11 children.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Sherman's Early Years

With an unusual middle name received from his father, a prominent lawyer and judge who admired the Shawnee chief Tecumseh, William Tecumseh Sherman was born February 8, 1820, in Lancaster, Ohio.

The death of Sherman's father when he was 9 left his mother a poor widow with 11 children. Most of the Sherman children were fostered out to live with other families.

Sherman, nicknamed "Cump," was raised by John Ewing, a family friend who was an Ohio senator and Cabinet member. Sherman later married his foster sister, Ellen Ewing, and the couple had eight children.

Sherman was not the only successful member of his family. An elder brother became a federal judge, and younger brother John Sherman was elected to the U.S. Senate and later served as both secretary of the treasury and secretary of state. Several of his Ewing foster siblings also rose to prominence.

West Point and Early Military Career

When Sherman was 16, John Ewing secured him a position at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. There he met and befriended several future military leaders who he would fight alongside - and against - during the Civil War.

Sherman graduated in 1840, ranked sixth in his class. He excelled in the academic side of his training, but was dismissive of West Point's strict set of rules and demerits, a trait he would carry with him throughout his military career.

He was stationed in Georgia and South Carolina, and fought in the Second Seminole War in Florida. This first introduction to life in the South left a lasting favorable impression.

Unlike many of his West Point classmates, Sherman did not see action in the Mexican-American War. Instead, he was stationed in Northern California, which was just on the verge of the California Gold Rush. He spent several years there as an administrative officer, eventually rising to the rank of captain.

But with little combat experience, Sherman realized future advancement was unlikely. He resigned his commission in 1853, but remained in California with his growing family.

Sherman Before the Civil War

Sherman became a banker, but was overwhelmed by the frenetic pace of San Francisco, a city teeming with an influx of speculators. Sherman's bank failed in 1857, and he briefly moved to Kansas, where he practiced law.

Sherman returned to the South in 1859, when he accepted a position as superintendent of the Louisiana State Seminary of Learning and Military Academy (now Louisiana State University). He was a popular headmaster and was very fond of the friends he made there.

Sherman was not an ardent opponent of slavery, but he was vehemently against the idea of Southern secession over the issue. He repeatedly warned his Southern friends of the dangers they faced taking on the more prosperous, industrialized North, but to no avail. He resigned his position after Louisiana seceded in January 1861.

For several months, he worked as the president of a St. Louis streetcar company. After the Confederate States of America attacked Fort Sumter, Sherman worried that President Abraham Lincoln was not committing enough troops to bring the war to a swift end. But he overcame his doubts, and his brother John secured him a commission in the U.S Army.

First Battle of Bull Run

Sherman became colonel of the new 13th Infantry Regiment. Before that unit was fully activated, he led a brigade at the First Battle of Bull Run in July 1861. The Union suffered a surprising defeat, but Sherman was praised for his actions, and Lincoln promoted him to brigadier general of volunteers.

Sherman's fears about the war escalated when he was transferred to Kentucky and the Army of the Cumberland. Sherman succeeded General Robert Anderson, but suffered grave doubts about his lack of men and supplies, as well as his own abilities.

Sherman called for 200,000 men, and was widely ridiculed in the press, some of which called him insane, an event that permanently soured Sherman on the media. In November 1861, Sherman was relieved of his duties and returned home to Ohio, suffering from depression and a nervous breakdown.

Sherman and Grant

He returned to service just weeks later, again assigned to the Western Theater. He supported Ulysses S. Grant at the successful Battle of Fort Donelson, Kentucky, and the two began to develop a close bond.

Now serving under Grant in the Army of West Tennessee, Sherman fought at the Battle of Shiloh in April 1862. Caught unprepared by the Confederate assault (he had dismissed intelligence reports on the size and placement of enemy troops), he rallied his troops for an organized retreat that prevented a rout, allowing Union forces to secure victory the following day.

He was promoted to major general of volunteers. Grant was heavily criticized for the losses at Shiloh and considered resigning, but Sherman convinced him to stay.

Sherman continued to serve with Grant in the West, culminating in the capture of the vital Confederate stronghold after the Siege of Vicksburg, Mississippi. Despite misgivings over Grant's unorthodox campaign and siege, which earned Grant more criticism (this time over his drinking), Sherman provided key logistical support.

When the city finally fell on July 4, 1863, the Union gained control of the Mississippi River, a key turning point in the war.

President Lincoln recognized the value of both men: Grant was put in charge of all troops in the West, and Sherman received an additional commission as brigadier general of the regular army.

At the head of the Army of the Tennessee, Sherman was criticized for his performance at the Battle of Chattanooga, although the Union eventually prevailed. He assumed control of all Western armies when Grant was transferred East to take command of all Union armies.

Sherman Takes Atlanta

In May 1864, Sherman set out for Atlanta, a center of Confederate industry. Sherman's troops were on the move for four months, as he squared off against Confederate Generals Joseph E. Johnston and John B. Hood. Hood was forced to abandon the city, and Sherman captured Atlanta in early September.

The city was nearly destroyed, although it is still debated whether the worst of the damage was done by Sherman's men or retreating Confederate troops. With Grant suffering devastating casualties in the East (while winning militarily), Sherman's victory in Atlanta helped Abraham Lincoln secure reelection to a second term.

By this time, Sherman was convinced that the Confederacy could only be brought to heel by the complete destruction of both its military and civilian ability to wage war. Despite his earlier fondness for the South and its people, his strategy of "total war" would bring devastation to the region, earning Sherman a deep level of hatred (some of which remains today).

Sherman himself loathed the impact of the fighting, but realized its necessity, famously saying, "War is cruelty. There is no use trying to reform it. The crueler it is, the sooner it will be over."

Sherman's March to the Sea

With the full support of both Lincoln and Grant, Sherman devised an unusual plan. In November 1864, he departed Atlanta with 60,000 troops, bound for the coastal port of Savannah.

He separated his men into two Corps, which tore through the countryside, destroying both military and civilian targets. Twisted railroad lines along the way became known as "Sherman's neckties."

Georgia's citizens lived in fear of advancing troops, but the rest of the country had no news of Sherman's March to the Sea. His distrust of the press led Sherman to ban reporters, and many Americans had no clue where the army went after leaving Atlanta.

Sherman's March to the Sea showcased his logistical brilliance. Marching in secret meant he had no connection to Union supplies, forcing his men to carry with them everything they would need. They foraged and stole food to supplement rations, and built pontoon bridges and roads to traverse the terrain.

Finally, in December, Sherman's troops showed up outside Savannah, which they easily occupied. Sherman wired the president on December 22, offering Lincoln the city as a Christmas gift.

Early in the new year, Sherman turned his attention north, marching his men through the Carolinas. South Carolina was treated perhaps even harsher than Georgia - the first state to secede was also the state where the Confederacy first fired shots on federal Fort Sumter. Most of the city of Columbia was burned to the ground.

By the spring, Sherman's army was in North Carolina, when news spread of Robert E. Lee's surrender at Appomattox.

Sherman's Post-Civil War Career

Sherman remained in the U.S. Army after the war. When Grant became president in 1869, Sherman assumed command of all U.S. forces.

He was criticized for the role he played in America's war on Native Americans in the West, but he himself was critical of U.S. mistreatment of the native population.

He retired from active duty in 1884, eventually settling in New York. He brushed aside repeated requests to run for political office, saying, "I will not accept if nominated, and will not serve if elected."

Sherman died in New York on February 14, 1891, at age 71, and was buried in St. Louis. In a final tribute from a former foe, Joseph E. Johnston served as pallbearer at Sherman's funeral. Refusing to don a hat as a sign of respect, Johnston caught a cold, which developed into pneumonia and died just weeks later.

Sources

William Tecumseh Sherman, American Battlefield Trust.
Citizen Sherman: A Life of William Tecumseh Sherman, by Michael Fellmann (Random House, 1995).
Fierce Patriot: The Tangled Lives of William Tecumseh Sherman, by Robert L. O'Connell (Random House, 2015)
William Tecumseh Sherman, About North Georgia.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
William Tecumseh Sherman - Biography, Civil War & Accomplishments

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
With an unusual middle name received from his father, a prominent lawyer and judge who admired the Shawnee chief Tecumseh, William Tecumseh Sherman was born February 8, 1820, in Lancaster, Ohio. The death of Sherman's father when he was 9 left his mother a poor widow with 11 children.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
From November 15 until December 21, 1864, Union General William T. Sherman led some 60,000 soldiers on a 285-mile march from Atlanta to Savannah, Georgia. The purpose of Sherman's March to the Sea was to frighten Georgia's civilian population into abandoning the Confederate cause. Sherman's soldiers did not destroy any of the towns in their path, but they stole food and livestock and burned the houses and barns of people who tried to fight back. The Yankees were "not only fighting hostile armies, but a hostile people," Sherman explained; as a result, they needed to "make old and young, rich and poor, feel the hard hand of war."

The Fall of Atlanta

General Sherman's troops captured Atlanta on September 2, 1864. This was an important triumph, because Atlanta was a railroad hub and the industrial center of the Confederacy: It had munitions factories, foundries and warehouses that kept the Confederate army supplied with food, weapons and other goods. It stood between the Union Army and two of its most prized targets: the Gulf of Mexico to the west and Charleston to the East. It was also a symbol of Confederate pride and strength, and its fall made even the most loyal Southerners doubt that they could win the war. ("Since Atlanta," South Carolinian Mary Boykin Chestnut wrote in her diary, "I have felt as if...we are going to be wiped off the earth.")

Did you know? In theyears afterthe Civil War, fighting forces around the world have made use of Sherman's "total war" strategy.

March to the Sea

After they lost Atlanta, the Confederate army headed west into Tennessee and Alabama, attacking Union supply lines as they went. Sherman was reluctant to set off on a wild goose chase across the South, however, and so he split his troops into two groups. Major General George Thomas took some 60,000 men to meet the Confederates in Nashville, while Sherman took the remaining 62,000 on an offensive march through Georgia to Savannah, "smashing things" (he wrote) " to the sea."

"Make Georgia Howl"

Sherman believed that the Confederacy derived its strength not from its fighting forces but from the material and moral support of sympathetic Southern whites. Factories, farms and railroads provided Confederate troops with the things they needed, he reasoned; and if he could destroy those things, the Confederate war effort would collapse. Meanwhile, his troops could undermine Southern morale by making life so unpleasant for Georgia's civilians that they would demand an end to the war.

To that end, Sherman's troops marched south toward Savannah in two wings, about 30 miles apart. On November 22, 3,500 Confederate cavalry started a skirmish with the Union soldiers at Griswoldville, but that ended so badly-650 Confederate soldiers were killed or wounded, compared to 62 Yankee casualties-that Southern troops initiated no more battles. Instead, they fled South ahead of Sherman's troops, wreaking their own havoc as they went: They wrecked bridges, chopped down trees and burned barns filled with provisions before the Union army could reach them.

The Union soldiers were just as unsparing. They raided farms and plantations, stealing and slaughtering cows, chickens, turkeys, sheep and hogs and taking as much other food-especially bread and potatoes-as they could carry. (These groups of foraging soldiers were nicknamed "bummers," and they burned whatever they could not carry.) The marauding Yankees needed the supplies, but they also wanted to teach Georgians a lesson: "it isn't so sweet to secede," one soldier wrote in a letter home, "as [they] thought it would be."

Sherman's troops arrived in Savannah on December 21, 1864, about three weeks after they left Atlanta. The city was undefended when they got there. (The 10,000 Confederates who were supposed to be guarding it had already fled.) Sherman presented the city of Savannah and its 25,000 bales of cotton to President Lincoln as a Christmas gift.Early in 1865, Sherman and his men left Savannah and pillaged and burned their way through South Carolina to Charleston. In April, the Confederacy surrendered and the war was over.

Total War

Sherman's "total war" in Georgia was brutal and destructive, but it did just what it was supposed to do: it hurt Southern morale, made it impossible for the Confederates to fight at full capacity and likely hastened the end of the war. "This Union and its Government must be sustained, at any and every cost," explained one of Sherman's subordinates. "To sustain it, we must war upon and destroy the organized rebel forces,-must cut off their supplies, destroy their communications...and produce among the people of Georgia a thorough conviction of the personal misery which attends war, and the utter helplessness and inability of their 'rulers' to protect them...If that terror and grief and even want shall help to paralyze their husbands and fathers who are fighting us...it is mercy in the end."

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From November 15 until December 21, 1864, Union General William T. Sherman led some 60,000 soldiers on a 285-mile march from Atlanta to Savannah, Georgia. The purpose of Sherman's March to the Sea was to frighten Georgia's civilian population into abandoning the Confederate cause.

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1. Washington had only a grade-school education.

The first president's formal schooling ended when he was 11 years old, after his father died. That event cut young George off from the opportunity to be educated abroad in England, a privilege that had been afforded to his older half-brothers. Washington's mother never remarried, forcing the adolescent to shoulder weighty burdens at a young age, as the oldest child of six from his father's second family. She taught him how to run a tobacco farm, and at the age of 16 he took his first job as a land surveyor. For the rest of his life, Washington would be embarrassed by his stunted schooling.

2. At age 22, Washington led a disastrous military skirmish that sparked a world war.

As France and Britain fought for territory at the edges of the North American colonies, Virginia sided with the British. As an officer in the Virginia militia, Washington was sent to the Ohio Valley (now western Pennsylvania) with some 150 troops, to help repel any attacks by the French. Warned by local Native American allies that a small French force has set up camp within several miles of his position, he led an attack with 40 of his soldiers, along with a dozen native warriors.

Who fired the first shot remains in dispute, but at the end of the 15-minute skirmish, at least 10 French soldiers and one Virginian were dead-including, most notably, a minor French noble, Joseph Coulon de Villiers, Sieur de Jumonville, who the French later said was on a diplomatic mission. Jumonville's death enraged the French, who called Washington an assassin. The conflict between the French and the British escalated into the French and Indian War, and soon spread worldwide in what became known as the Seven Years' War.

3. Washington's first love was the wife of one of his best friends.

"The world has no business to know the object of my love, declared in this manner to you when I want to conceal it," Washington wrote weeks before his wedding. The letter wasn't sent to his fiancée Martha Custis -but to Sally Fairfax, who was married to one of his best friends and patrons, George Fairfax, son of one of Virginia's largest landowners. Described as an intelligent, "dark-eyed beauty," Sally befriended Washington when he was still an awkward teen. Historians credit her with helping to smooth his rough edges socially, teaching him how to behave and converse among the wealthy and powerful, and even how to dance the minuet. It's unclear whether romance actually blossomed between the two.

4. About those teeth: No, they weren't wooden.

Washington ruined his teeth using them to crack walnut shells. The dentures he had were made out of lots of things, but not wood. Instead, they came largely from human teeth, pulled from the mouths of the poor and his enslaved workers. They also came from ivory, cow teeth and lead. He had a little spring inside the dentures that helped them open and close.

The fake teeth caused him great discomfort, and were one of the reasons he rarely smiled. He had to have his morning hoe cakes and syrup (chosen for their softness) cut into tiny pieces to make them easier to eat.

5. Washington wasn't always a great general, but he was an excellent spymaster.

Washington struggled mightily to win the Revolutionary War with an army that was perpetually undermanned, undertrained and undersupplied. So to triumph over one of the world's most powerful military forces, he relied increasingly on his unseen weapon: a secret intelligence network. Throughout the conflict, Washington's spies helped him make bold, canny decisions that would turn the tide of the conflict-and in some instances, even save his life.

The story of Washington's underground spy network, and how it helped Americans win their revolution, is replete with intrigue: There were letters written in invisible ink, a rare female agent who went by the mysterious moniker Agent 355, an African-American double agent, a patriot tailor who collected dirt while making clothes for British officers-and the gruesome execution of the spy Nathan Hale. According to the Central Intelligence Agency, "General Washington was more deeply involved in intelligence operations than any American general-in-chief until Dwight Eisenhower during World War II."

6. When he stepped down as commander-in-chief, he didn't want to run the country.

After eight years on the battlefield, Washington was more than ready to return home-to Mount Vernon, to his family, to his animals and his crops. Before he stepped back, though, he had some hard-earned wisdom he felt compelled to share with the fledgling nation. So in the summer of 1783, he drafted his " Circular Letter to the States," in which he detailed what he believed it would take for the American experiment to succeed. In many ways, it was a precursor to his famed Farewell Address 13 years later, a prescient warning to the country of the most likely political pitfalls. In the letter, Washington establishes four things he felt would help guide America forward.

7. He had no biological children, but he was a father figure to many.

It's never been definitively established why the Washingtons couldn't conceive-theories range from George's early bouts with smallpox or tuberculosis to Martha's case of measles. But when Washington married Martha Custis, a wealthy young widow, he became the legal guardian of her two younger children: four-year-old John Parke Custis (known as Jacky) and two-year-old Martha Parke Custis (known as Patsy). He was extremely fond of them and was bereft when 17-year-old Patsy died of an epileptic seizure.

As a father figure, he was especially fond of dispensing advice via letters-on everything from education to romance. He nagged his stepson to have more discipline with his studies, and warned his granddaughter against marrying for the wrong reasons: "Love is a mighty pretty thing; but like all other delicious things, it is cloying," he wrote, adding that it is "too dainty a food to live upon alone."

8. Washington was really into his animals.

Washington wasn't just America's first president, he was also its first mule breeder. (Mules=a mix of horse and donkey.) Recognizing the value of the mule for farmers, Washington is believed responsible for creating the mule stock that powered American agriculture in the South for generations.

And mules weren't the only animals he bred. In addition to many varieties of birds, Washington kept many canine breeds at Mount Vernon, including Dalmatians, English foxhounds, French hounds, Greyhounds, Italian Greyhounds, mastiffs, Newfoundlands, pointers, spaniels and terriers. A huge dog lover, he selectively bred hunting dogs for speed over the years and gave them endearing names like Sweet Lips, Venus, Trulove, Taster, Tippler, Drunkard and Madame Moose.

9. Washington was pretty cagey when it came to his religious beliefs.

When it comes to his personal religious beliefs, Washington was tough to read. With so few accounts to draw from, historians are mostly limited to analyzing what Washington did, to try to understand what he may have believed.

The trouble is, even his most straightforward actions can, at times, appear contradictory. The first president encouraged his fellow Americans to show up for worship, for instance, but sometimes struggled to attend church himself for weeks at a time. For many years, he served as a dedicated vestryman and church warden, but left services instead of taking communion. And while he peppered his writings with references to Providence, there's comparatively little mention of God or Jesus Christ.

10. He had a complicated relationship with slavery.

Washington's contradictory attitudes toward slavery are one of the great mysteries of his life and legacy. Like nearly all wealthy Virginia landowners, he owned enslaved people who worked his land. He received the first enslaved people of his own when his father died in 1743. Washington, just 11 years old at the time, was willed 10 enslaved people. By the time he married Martha Custis in 1759 (who came to the marriage with her own enslaved people), he had purchased at least eight more.

Over the years, Washington's thinking on slavery evolved. During the Revolutionary War, he became more uncomfortable with the thought of purchasing and owning other human beings. While he supported abolition in theory, he never tried it in practice. His plantation, his wealth and his position in society depended on enslaved people to work as laborers. When one of Martha's enslaved people fled to freedom in 1796, Washington spent the last three years of his life trying to force her to return. But when it came time to make his will, it contained an order to free his slaves-with the stipulation that they remain with Martha for the rest of her life.

11. Washington was a tough man to kill.

A tall and robust man, Washington survived multiple life-threatening situations. At various points, Washington had diptheria, tuberculosis, smallpox, malaria, dysentery, Quinsy, carbuncle and pneumonia. He survived near drowning in an ice-clogged river. He survived the burning and massacre of Fort Necessity. He survived two horses being shot out from under him and four bullets passing close enough to pierce his clothing-all in one battle.

Ironically, it was a cold that did him in. Technically, it was epiglottitis, an infection of the back of the throat that would be curable with antibiotics today. While he lay dying, his doctors effectively tortured him-burning him to remove the sickness and draining him of a full 40 percent of his blood. Washington was fearful of being buried alive, as he was convinced others in history had been. He directed that his body not be buried for three days after his death, just in case.

HISTORY Vault: George Washington

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11 Little-Known Facts About George Washington | HISTORY

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He's America's first president. The icon we all think we know. But in reality, he was a complicated human being.

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George Washington's Early Years

George Washington was born on February 22, 1732, at his family's plantation on Pope's Creek in Westmoreland County, in the British colony of Virginia, to Augustine Washington (1694-1743) and his second wife, Mary Ball Washington (1708-89). George, the eldest of Augustine and Mary Washington's six children, spent much of his childhood at Ferry Farm, a plantation near Fredericksburg, Virginia. After Washington's father died when he was 11, it's likely he helped his mother manage the plantation.

Did you know? At the time of his death in 1799, George Washington owned some 300 enslaved people. However, before his passing, he had become opposed to slavery, and in his will, he ordered that his enslaved workers be freed after his wife's death.

Few details about Washington's early education are known, although children of prosperous families like his typically were taught at home by private tutors or attended private schools. It's believed he finished his formal schooling at around age 15.

As a teenager, Washington, who had shown an aptitude for mathematics, became a successful surveyor. His surveying expeditions into the Virginia wilderness earned him enough money to begin acquiring land of his own.

In 1751, Washington made his only trip outside of America, when he traveled to Barbados with his older half-brother Lawrence Washington (1718-52), who was suffering from tuberculosis and hoped the warm climate would help him recuperate. Shortly after their arrival, George contracted smallpox. He survived, although the illness left him with permanent facial scars. In 1752, Lawrence, who had been educated in England and served as Washington's mentor, died. Washington eventually inherited Lawrence's estate, Mount Vernon, on the Potomac River near Alexandria, Virginia.

An Officer and Gentleman Farmer

In December 1752, Washington, who had no previous military experience, was made a commander of the Virginia militia. He saw action in the French and Indian War and was eventually put in charge of all of Virginia's militia forces. By 1759, Washington had resigned his commission, returned to Mount Vernon and was elected to the Virginia House of Burgesses, where he served until 1774. In January 1759, he married Martha Dandridge Custis (1731-1802), a wealthy widow with two children. Washington became a devoted stepfather to her children; he and Martha Washington never had any offspring of their own.

In the ensuing years, Washington expanded Mount Vernon from 2,000 acres into an 8,000-acre property with five farms. He grew a variety of crops, including wheat and corn, bred mules and maintained fruit orchards and a successful fishery. He was deeply interested in farming and continually experimented with new crops and methods of land conservation.

George Washington During the American Revolution

Washington proved to be a better general than military strategist. His strength lay not in his genius on the battlefield but in his ability to keep the struggling colonial army together. His troops were poorly trained and lacked food, ammunition and other supplies (soldiers sometimes even went without shoes in winter). However, Washington was able to give them direction and motivation. His leadership during the winter of 1777-1778 at Valley Forge was a testament to his power to inspire his men to keep going.

By the late 1760s, Washington had experienced firsthand the effects of rising taxes imposed on American colonists by the British and came to believe that it was in the best interests of the colonists to declare independence from England. Washington served as a delegate to the First Continental Congress in 1774 in Philadelphia. By the time the Second Continental Congress convened a year later, the American Revolution had begun in earnest, and Washington was named commander in chief of the Continental Army.

Over the course of the grueling eight-year war, the colonial forces won few battles but consistently held their own against the British. In October 1781, with the aid of the French (who allied themselves with the colonists over their rivals the British), the Continental forces were able to capture British troops under General Charles Cornwallis (1738-1805) in the Battle of Yorktown. This action effectively ended the Revolutionary War and Washington was declared a national hero.

America's First President

In 1783, with the signing of the Treaty of Paris between Great Britain and the U.S., Washington, believing he had done his duty, gave up his command of the army and returned to Mount Vernon, intent on resuming his life as a gentleman farmer and family man. However, in 1787, he was asked to attend the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia and head the committee to draft the new constitution. His impressive leadership there convinced the delegates that he was by far the most qualified man to become the nation's first president.

At first, Washington balked. He wanted to, at last, return to a quiet life at home and leave governing the new nation to others. But public opinion was so strong that eventually he gave in. The first presidential election was held on January 7, 1789, and Washington won handily. John Adams (1735-1826), who received the second-largest number of votes, became the nation's first vice president. The 57-year-old Washington was inaugurated on April 30, 1789, in New York City. Because Washington, D.C., America's future capital city wasn't yet built, he lived in New York and Philadelphia. While in office, he signed a bill establishing a future, permanent U.S. capital along the Potomac River-the city later named Washington, D.C., in his honor.

George Washington's Accomplishments

The United States was a small nation when Washington took office, consisting of 11 states and approximately 4 million people, and there was no precedent for how the new president should conduct domestic or foreign business. Mindful that his actions would likely determine how future presidents were expected to govern, Washington worked hard to set an example of fairness, prudence and integrity. In foreign matters, he supported cordial relations with other countries but also favored a position of neutrality in foreign conflicts. Domestically, he nominated the first chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, John Jay (1745-1829), signed a bill establishing the first national bank, the Bank of the United States, and set up his own presidential cabinet.

His two most prominent cabinet appointees were Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) and Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton (1755-1804), two men who disagreed strongly on the role of the federal government. Hamilton favored a strong central government and was part of the Federalist Party, while Jefferson favored stronger states' rights as part of the Democratic-Republican Party, the forerunner to the Democratic Party. Washington believed that divergent views were critical for the health of the new government, but he was distressed at what he saw as an emerging partisanship.

George Washington's presidency was marked by a series of firsts. He signed the first United States copyright law, protecting the copyrights of authors. He also signed the first Thanksgiving proclamation, making November 26 a national day of Thanksgiving for the end of the war for American independence and the successful ratification of the Constitution.

During Washington's presidency, Congress passed the first federal revenue law, a tax on distilled spirits. In July 1794, farmers in Western Pennsylvania rebelled over the so-called "whiskey tax." Washington called in over 12,000 militiamen to Pennsylvania to dissolve the Whiskey Rebellion in one of the first major tests of the authority of the national government.

Under Washington's leadership, the states ratified the Bill of Rights, and five new states entered the union: North Carolina (1789), Rhode Island (1790), Vermont (1791), Kentucky (1792) and Tennessee (1796).

In his second term, Washington issued the proclamation of neutrality to avoid entering the 1793 war between Great Britain and France. But when French minister to the United States Edmond Charles Genet-known to history as "Citizen Genet"-toured the United States, he boldly flaunted the proclamation, attempting to set up American ports as French military bases and gain support for his cause in the Western United States. His meddling caused a stir between Federalists and Democratic-Republicans, widening the rift between parties and making consensus-building more difficult.

In 1795, Washington signed the "Treaty of Amity Commerce and Navigation, between His Britannic Majesty; and The United States of America," or Jay's Treaty, so-named for John Jay, who had negotiated it with the government of King George III. It helped the U.S. avoid war with Great Britain, but also rankled certain members of Congress back home and was fiercely opposed by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. Internationally, it caused a stir among the French, who believed it violated previous treaties between the United States and France.

Washington's administration signed two other influential international treaties. Pinckney's Treaty of 1795, also known as the Treaty of San Lorenzo, established friendly relations between the United States and Spain, firming up borders between the U.S. and Spanish territories in North America and opening up the Mississippi to American traders. The Treaty of Tripoli, signed the following year, gave American ships access to Mediterranean shipping lanes in exchange for a yearly tribute to the Pasha of Tripoli.

George Washington's Retirement to Mount Vernon and Death

In 1796, after two terms as president and declining to serve a third term, Washington finally retired. In Washington's farewell address, he urged the new nation to maintain the highest standards domestically and to keep involvement with foreign powers to a minimum. The address is still read each February in the U.S. Senate to commemorate Washington's birthday.

Washington returned to Mount Vernon and devoted his attentions to making the plantation as productive as it had been before he became president. More than four decades of public service had aged him, but he was still a commanding figure. In December 1799, he caught a cold after inspecting his properties in the rain. The cold developed into a throat infection and Washington died on the night of December 14, 1799, at the age of 67. He was entombed at Mount Vernon, which in 1960 was designated a national historic landmark.

Washington left one of the most enduring legacies of any American in history. Known as the "Father of His Country," his face appears on the U.S. dollar bill and quarter, and dozens of U.S. schools, towns and counties, as well as the state of Washington and the nation's capital city, are named for him.

George Washington: An Interactive Timeline of His Life

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George Washington: Facts, Revolution & Presidency

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George Washington (1732-99) was commander in chief of the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War (1775-83) and served two terms as the first U.S. president, from 1789 to 1797.

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Who Was Frederick Douglass?

Frederick Douglass was born into slavery in or around 1818 in Talbot County, Maryland. Douglass himself was never sure of his exact birth date.

His mother was an enslaved Black women and his father was white and of European descent. He was actually born Frederick Bailey (his mother's name), and took the name Douglass only after he escaped. His full name at birth was "Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey."

After he was separated from his mother as an infant, Douglass lived for a time with his maternal grandmother, Betty Bailey. However, at the age of six, he was moved away from her to live and work on the Wye House plantation in Maryland.

From there, Douglass was "given" to Lucretia Auld, whose husband, Thomas, sent him to work with his brother Hugh in Baltimore. Douglass credits Hugh's wife Sophia with first teaching him the alphabet. With that foundation, Douglass then taught himself to read and write. By the time he was hired out to work under William Freeland, he was teaching other enslaved people to read using the Bible.

As word spread of his efforts to educate fellow enslaved people, Thomas Auld took him back and transferred him to Edward Covey, a farmer who was known for his brutal treatment of the enslaved people in his charge. Roughly 16 at this time, Douglass was regularly whipped by Covey.

Frederick Douglass Escapes from Slavery

After several failed attempts at escape, Douglass finally left Covey's farm in 1838, first boarding a train to Havre de Grace, Maryland. From there he traveled through Delaware, another slave state, before arriving in New York and the safe house of abolitionist David Ruggles.

Once settled in New York, he sent for Anna Murray, a free Black woman from Baltimore he met while in captivity with the Aulds. She joined him, and the two were married in September 1838. They had five children together.

From Slavery to Abolitionist Leader

After their marriage, the young couple moved to New Bedford, Massachusetts, where they met Nathan and Mary Johnson, a married couple who were born "free persons of color." It was the Johnsons who inspired the couple to take the surname Douglass, after the character in the Sir Walter Scott poem, "The Lady of the Lake."

In New Bedford, Douglass began attending meetings of the abolitionist movement. During these meetings, he was exposed to the writings of abolitionist and journalist William Lloyd Garrison.

The two men eventually met when both were asked to speak at an abolitionist meeting, during which Douglass shared his story of slavery and escape. It was Garrison who encouraged Douglass to become a speaker and leader in the abolitionist movement.

By 1843, Douglass had become part of the American Anti-Slavery Society's "Hundred Conventions" project, a six-month tour through the United States. Douglass was physically assaulted several times during the tour by those opposed to the abolitionist movement.

In one particularly brutal attack, in Pendleton, Indiana, Douglass' hand was broken. The injuries never fully healed, and he never regained full use of his hand.

In 1858, radical abolitionist John Brown stayed with Frederick Douglass in Rochester, New York, as he planned his raid on the U.S. military arsenal at Harper's Ferry, part of his attempt to establish a stronghold of formerly enslaved people in the mountains of Maryland and Virginia. Brown was caught and hanged for masterminding the attack, offering the following prophetic words as his final statement: "I, John Brown, am now quite certain that the crimes of this guilty land will never be purged away but with blood."

'Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass'

Two years later, Douglass published the first and most famous of his autobiographies, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave. (He also authored My Bondage and My Freedom and Life and Times of Frederick Douglass).

In it Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, he wrote: "From my earliest recollection, I date the entertainment of a deep conviction that slavery would not always be able to hold me within its foul embrace; and in the darkest hours of my career in slavery, this living word of faith and spirit of hope departed not from me, but remained like ministering angels to cheer me through the gloom."

He also noted, "Thus is slavery the enemy of both the slave and the slaveholder."

Frederick Douglass in Ireland and Great Britain

Later that same year, Douglass would travel to Ireland and Great Britain. At the time, the former country was just entering the early stages of the Irish Potato Famine, or the Great Hunger.

While overseas, he was impressed by the relative freedom he had as a man of color, compared to what he had experienced in the United States. During his time in Ireland, he met the Irish nationalist Daniel O'Connell, who became an inspiration for his later work.

In England, Douglass also delivered what would later be viewed as one of his most famous speeches, the so-called "London Reception Speech."

In the speech, he said, "What is to be thought of a nation boasting of its liberty, boasting of its humanity, boasting of its Christianity, boasting of its love of justice and purity, and yet having within its own borders three millions of persons denied by law the right of marriage?... I need not lift up the veil by giving you any experience of my own. Every one that can put two ideas together, must see the most fearful results from such a state of things..."

Frederick Douglass' Abolitionist Paper

When he returned to the United States in 1847, Douglass began publishing his own abolitionist newsletter, the North Star. He also became involved in the movement for women's rights.

He was the only African American to attend the Seneca Falls Convention, a gathering of women's rights activists in New York, in 1848.

He spoke forcefully during the meeting and said, "In this denial of the right to participate in government, not merely the degradation of woman and the perpetuation of a great injustice happens, but the maiming and repudiation of one-half of the moral and intellectual power of the government of the world."

He later included coverage of women's rights issues in the pages of the North Star. The newsletter's name was changed to Frederick Douglass' Paper in 1851, and was published until 1860, just before the start of the Civil War.

Frederick Douglass Quotes

In 1852, he delivered another of his more famous speeches, one that later came to be called "What to a slave is the 4th of July?"

In one section of the speech, Douglass noted, "What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? I answer: a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him, your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your denunciations of tyrants, brass fronted impudence; your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings, with all your religious parade, and solemnity, are, to him, mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy-a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages."

For the 24th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation, in 1886, Douglass delivered a rousing address in Washington, D.C., during which he said, "where justice is denied, where poverty is enforced, where ignorance prevails, and where any one class is made to feel that society is an organized conspiracy to oppress, rob and degrade them, neither persons nor property will be safe."

Frederick Douglass During the Civil War

During the brutal conflict that divided the still-young United States, Douglass continued to speak and worked tirelessly for the end of slavery and the right of newly freed Black Americans to vote.

Although he supported President Abraham Lincoln in the early years of the Civil War, Douglass fell into disagreement with the politician after the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863, which effectively ended the practice of slavery. Douglass was disappointed that Lincoln didn't use the proclamation to grant formerly enslaved people the right to vote, particularly after they had fought bravely alongside soldiers for the Union army.

It is said, though, that Douglass and Lincoln later reconciled and, following Lincoln's assassination in 1865, and the passage of the 13th amendment, 14th amendment, and 15th amendment to the U.S. Constitution (which, respectively, outlawed slavery, granted formerly enslaved people citizenship and equal protection under the law, and protected all citizens from racial discrimination in voting), Douglass was asked to speak at the dedication of the Emancipation Memorial in Washington, D.C.'s Lincoln Park in 1876.

Historians, in fact, suggest that Lincoln's widow, Mary Todd Lincoln, bequeathed the late-president's favorite walking stick to Douglass after that speech.

In the post-war Reconstruction era, Douglass served in many official positions in government, including as an ambassador to the Dominican Republic, thereby becoming the first Black man to hold high office. He also continued speaking and advocating for African American and women's rights.

In the 1868 presidential election, he supported the candidacy of former Union general Ulysses S. Grant, who promised to take a hard line against white supremacist-led insurgencies in the post-war South. Grant notably also oversaw passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1871, which was designed to suppress the growing Ku Klux Klan movement.

Frederick Douglass: Later Life and Death

In 1877, Douglass met with Thomas Auld, the man who once "owned" him, and the two reportedly reconciled.

Douglass' wife Anna died in 1882, and he married white activist Helen Pitts in 1884.

In 1888, he became the first African American to receive a vote for President of the United States, during the Republican National Convention. Ultimately, though, Benjamin Harrison received the party nomination.

Douglass remained an active speaker, writer and activist until his death in 1895. He died after suffering a heart attack at home after arriving back from a meeting of the National Council of Women, a women's rights group still in its infancy at the time, in Washington, D.C.

His life's work still serves as an inspiration to those who seek equality and a more just society.

Sources

Frederick Douglas, PBS.org.
Frederick Douglas, National Parks Service, nps.gov.
Frederick Douglas, 1818-1895, Documenting the South, University of North Carolina, docsouth.unc.edu.
Frederick Douglass Quotes, brainyquote.com.
"Reception Speech. At Finsbury Chapel, Moorfields, England, May 12, 1846." USF.edu.
"What to the slave is the 4th of July?" TeachingAmericanHistory.org.
Graham, D.A. (2017). "Donald Trump's Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass." The Atlantic.

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Frederick Douglass - Narrative, Quotes & Facts | HISTORY

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Frederick Douglass was an escaped slave who became a prominent activist, author and public speaker. He became a leader in the abolitionist movement, which sought to end the practice of slavery, before and during the Civil War.

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Frederick Douglass sits in the pantheon of Black history figures. Born into slavery, he made a daring escape North, wrote best-selling autobiographies and went on to become one of the nation's most powerful voices against human bondage. He stands as the most influential civil and human rights advocate of the 19th century.

Perhaps his greatest legacy? He never shied away from hard truths.

Because even as he wowed 19th-century audiences in the U.S. and England with his soaring eloquence and patrician demeanor, even as he riveted readers with his published autobiographies, Douglass kept them focused on the horrors he and millions of others endured as enslaved Americans: the relentless indignities, the physical violence, the families ripped apart. And he blasted the hypocrisy of a slave-holding nation touting liberty and justice for all.

He wanted to rouse the nation's conscience-and expose its hypocrisy

Douglass's voluminous writings and speeches reveal a man who believed fiercely in the ideals on which America was founded, but understood-with the scars to prove it-that democracy would never be a destination of comfort and repose, but a journey of ongoing self-criticism and struggle. He knew it when he lobbied relentlessly to abolish slavery. And he knew it after Emancipation, when he continued to battle for equal rights under the law.

Indeed, Douglass knew, as he argued so ardently in his famed 1852 July Fourth speech,that for democracy to thrive, the nation's conscience must be roused, its propriety startled and its hypocrisy exposed. Not once, but continually and for the good of the nation, he argued, we must bring the "thunder."

Douglass's extraordinary life and legacy can be understood best through his autobiographies and his countless articles and speeches. But they weren't his only activities. He also published an abolitionist newspaper for 16 years...supported the Underground Railroad by which enslaved people escaped north...became the first African American to receive a vote for President of the United States during roll call at the 1888 Republican National Convention...and even was known to play America's national anthem on the violin.

Underpinning it all was his relentless process of self-education-a theme that runs throughout Douglass's life story.

Education, abuse and escape

Born in Maryland in 1818, Douglass, like many enslaved children, was separated from his mother at birth; he resided with his loving maternal grandmother until he turned seven.

At the age of eight, he became a servant in the home of Hugh Auld in Baltimore. In defiance of the codes that explicitly forbade teaching enslaved people how to read, Mrs. Auld taught Douglass the alphabet, unlocking the gateway to education-which he would extol the rest of his life. Over time Douglass surreptitiously continued to teach himself to read and write, all the while strengthening his resolve to escape the confines of slavery. He defied the law in not only learning to read and write, but in teaching other enslaved people to do so. As he observed: "Some know the value of education by having it. I know its value by not having it."

In the early 1830s, Douglass was shipped to the plantation of Hugh's brother Thomas. In an effort to break his spirit, Thomas loaned Douglass to Edward Covey, a sadistic local slave master with a reputation for cruelty. Covey mercilessly beat and abused the teenager until one day Douglass decided to fight back, knocking Covey to the ground. Covey, tempered, never mentioned the encounter, but he also never laid hands on him again.

As for Douglass, he called the battle with Covey "the turning point" in his life as an enslaved person: "It rekindled the few expiring embers of freedom, and revived within me my own sense of manhood. It recalled the departed self-confidence, and inspired me again with a determination to be free."

In September of 1838 Douglass, disguised as a sailor and with borrowed free papers, managed to board a train to Havre de Grace, Maryland. He continued on to New York and ultimately, New Bedford, Massachusetts, where he settled, a free man. He married Anna Murray, a free woman of color who he had met and fallen in love with while in bondage in Baltimore. The couple had five children. The Douglasses made a commitment to eradicating the evil of slavery.

The authoritative voice of Abolition

After speaking at an anti-slavery meeting in 1841, Douglass met William Lloyd Garrison, one of the leading proponents calling for an immediate end to slavery. The two became friends and with Garrison's support, Douglass became one of the most sought-after speakers on the abolitionist circuit, not only for his searing testimony but his powerful oratory. In time, he lent his voice to the emerging women's-rights movement as well. He once reflected: "I would unite with anybody to do right and with nobody to do wrong."

In 1845, Douglass committed his story to print, publishing the first of three autobiographies, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave, with the support of Garrison and other abolitionists. The book gained international acclaim, confounding critics who argued that such fluid writing and penetrating thought could not be the product of a Black mind. Nevertheless, the Narrative catapulted Douglass to success outside the ranks of reformers, stoking fears that his celebrity might result in attempts by Auld to reclaim the man he had enslaved. To avoid this fate, Douglass traveled to England, where he remained for two years until a group of supporters there successfully negotiated payment for his freedom.

Back in the United States, Douglass navigated the tumultuous decade of the 1850s, steering a course between extremists like John Brown, who believed the only way to abolish slavery was through armed insurrection, and old friends like Garrison. Douglass published his own newspaper, The North Star. On the masthead, he inserted the motto "Right is of no sex-Truth is of no color-God is the Father of us all, and we are brethren," incorporating both Douglass's anti-slavery and pro-women's rights views.

On the eve of the Civil War, Douglass used his fame and influence to petition the Lincoln Administration to press for emancipation. As he remarked: "The thing worse than the rebellion is the thing that causes the rebellion." He further demanded that the Union allow Black men to enlist and aided the war effort by promoting recruitment.

Without struggle, he learned, there is no progress

Despite the hope engendered by the passage of the 13th Amendment abolishing slavery following the war, Douglass remained cautious, observing: "Verily, the work does not end with the abolition of slavery, but only begins." Over the course of the next few years, he remained a strong voice advocating for the passage of additional legislation to ensure absolute equality for Black people. By the end of the decade, however, he was also painfully aware of the mounting efforts to suspend Reconstruction and return Black people to a state of quasi-slavery-measures he continued to fight. His experience had taught him: "Without a struggle, there can be no progress."

Douglass died on February 20, 1895. While his life mapped the triumphant journey from slavery to freedom, the seeds of division had already been sown on the eve of his death. Three years earlier, Homer Plessy challenged Louisiana's law that required "all railway companies [to] provide equal but separate accommodations for the white, and colored races," leading to the landmark 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson Supreme Court decision upholding racial segregation. In spite of the failure of Reconstruction and the assault on Black equality, Douglass had still remained hopeful of a different outcome.

Of all the inspiring things to be recovered in Douglass life, his work in pursuit of social justice remains the most compelling. An uncompromising critic of American hypocrisy rather than American democracy, his critique was anchored much more in what could be.

Far from "slandering Americans" as he called it, Douglass appealed to them to remember the oppression that led to revolution, the desire for liberty that fueled its leaders and the vigilance necessary to maintain freedom. He warned against the denial of the most basic of human rights and the betrayal of revolutionary values in thoughts and actions.

That, today, is perhaps the most important lesson to be gleaned from Douglass's life. We would do well to acknowledge his daring escape from slavery, powerful oratory, leadership on civil and women's rights. But we shouldn't separate that from his ultimate message, which compelled us to be better-and more vocal-in the messy, ongoing process of pursuing social justice and perfecting our democracy. That, he believed, is what would make America great.
Yohuru Williams, an American academic, author and activist, serves as Distinguished University Chair, Professor and Founding Director of the Racial Justice Initiative at the University of St. Thomas.

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Why Frederick Douglass Matters | HISTORY

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He kept America focused on hard truths because he believed it necessary to a strong democracy.

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English soldier and explorer Captain John Smith played a key role in the founding of Jamestown, the first permanent English settlement in North America, in 1607.

Early Life and Military Exploits

Born around 1580 in Willoughby, a town in Lincolnshire, England, Smith left home at age 16 after his father's death. He sailed to France, where he joined volunteer forces fighting for Dutch independence against Spain. He later served on a pirate ship in the Mediterranean Sea before heading to Austria in 1600 to join the forces of the Holy Roman Empire in their fight against the Ottoman Turks. His valor earned him the rank of captain, which he would wear with pride the rest of his life.

While fighting in Transylvania in 1602, Smith was wounded, captured by the Turks and sold into slavery. He managed to escape by killing his owner, and traveled across Russia, Poland, Europe and North Africa before returning to England in 1604. As a commemoration of his feats in battle, Smith had a coat of arms engraved with three heads (representing three Turkish officers he had killed) and the motto vincere est vivere, Latin for "to conquer is to live."

Voyage to North America and Founding of Jamestown

In 1607, Smith's military reputation helped earn him a spot in the group of men assembled by the Virginia Company to form an English colony in North America. With a charter from King James I in hand, 104 settlers sailed from England aboard three ships in December 1606. During the four-month sea voyage, expedition leaders arrested Smith for planning a mutiny and imprisoned him below decks in shackles

When the ships reached Virginia in April 1607 and the settlers opened a box containing a list of men that the Virginia Company had appointed as a governing council for the new colony, Smith's name was on the list. He was released and allowed to assume his council seat to lead Jamestown, established in May 1607 on the banks of the river they named for King James.

Smith's Relations With Indigenous People

The new colony struggled with food shortages and disease, and in the fall of 1607 Smith began conducting expeditions to Native American villages to secure food. That December, a Powhatan hunting party captured Smith during one of these trips and brought him before Wahunsenacawh (commonly known as Chief Powhatan), the supreme leader of most of the indigenous tribes in the Chesapeake Bay region. According to Smith, the chief's young daughter, Pocahontas, saved him from execution; historians have questioned his account. In any case, the Powhatan released Smith and escorted him back to Jamestown.

By January 1608, only 38 of the original 104 settlers were still alive. Though Chief Powhatan sent food and more settlers arrived from England with supplies, the extreme winter cold led to the death of many of the new settlers. That spring, Smith began leading explorations of some 2,500 miles of the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries, including the Potomac and Rappahannock Rivers. He used his findings to map the area, including locations of Native American villages and other important information.

Leadership of Jamestown

In September 1608, Smith was elected president of Jamestown's governing council. He instilled greater discipline among the settlers, enforcing the rule "He who will not work shall not eat." Under Smith's guiding hand, the colony made progress: The settlers dug the first well, planted crops and began repairing the fort that had burned down the previous winter.

The English settlers had a rocky and often violent relationship with the Powhatan. The colonists continually raided Powhatan villages for food and Powhatan warriors attacked the fort at Jamestown. In October 1609, Smith was forced to return to England after sustaining a serious injury in a gunpowder explosion. In the months after his departure, Chief Powhatan ordered his men to attack the Jamestown fort, beginning the first Anglo-Powhatan War, and Jamestown endured the so-called "starving time" over the winter of 1609-10, during which several hundred colonists died.

Smith's Later Life in England, Writings and Death

Though Smith wanted to return to Jamestown, the Virginia Company refused to send him back. In 1614, Smith made another voyage, exploring and mapping the shores of Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts and naming the region "New England." He wanted to return and form a colony there, but on the way back in 1615 he was captured by French pirates and imprisoned for several months.

When he was released, Smith was unable to find anyone in England to back further voyages across the Atlantic. He focused on writing about his experiences, published works such as The Generall Historie of Virginia (1624) and The True Travels, Adventures, and Observations of Captain John Smith (1630). Though Smith was known to exaggerate his own exploits, and many have questioned the veracity of his claims-especially those about his rescue by Pocahontas -modern scholars have verified at least some of his information about the Jamestown colony.

Smith was approached to serve as military leader for the Pilgrims in 1620, but the group selected Miles Standish instead; they did use Smith's maps of New England. Smith died in London in June 1631, at the age of 51.

Sources

Bill Warder. "Captain John Smith." National Park Service.

Bernard Bailyn. The Barbarous Years - The Peopling of British North America: The Conflict of Civilizations, 1600-1675 (Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2012)

John Smith. Jamestown Rediscovery: Historic Jamestowne.

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English soldier and explorer Captain John Smith played a key role in the founding of Jamestown, the first permanent English settlement in North America, in 1607. Born around 1580 in Willoughby, a town in Lincolnshire, England, Smith left home at age 16 after his father's death.