Chapter 7: The Jeffersonian Era

Question 1

Midwifery

Answer 1

Brinkley, pg. 73, 187

1) Midwifery-assisted women in childbirth and dispensed other medical advice such as the use of herbs or other natural remedies.
2) Midwives were usually the friends and neighbors of the people they treated.
3) Midwifery began in the seventeen and eighteenth centuries because of the low number of physicians in America at the time and the minimal understanding they had in infection and sterilization.
4) In the early 19th century, physicians began to handle deliveries themselves and to demand restrictions on the role of midwives.
5) Resulting from this changing attitude, women lost an important occupation therefore limiting the number of opportunities for women.
6) Also resulting from this change, childbirth care for poor women became restricted because of the high charges physicians asked.

Question 2

Burr Conspiracy

Answer 2

Brinkley, pg. 206, 207

1) Occurred in the early 19th Century and in Washington D.C., Richmond, and parts of New England
2) Background: The Essex Junto in Massachusetts concluded that the New England should secede from the Union and form a separate Northern Confederacy. This extreme Federalist group turned to Vice President Aaron Burr as a potential candidate for governor of New York in 1804 because the group needed the support of New York and New Jersey in order to become effective, and the support of Burr would solve this problem. However, Burr lost the election and blamed Alexander Hamilton for his (Burr’s) defeat. Burr challenged Hamilton to a duel, defeated Hamilton and wounded him so severely that Hamilton died the next day, and was forced to flee to the Southwest to avoid repercussions.
3) Background: In the Southwest, Burr and General James Wilkinson, governor of the Louisiana Territory, hoped to lead an expedition that would capture Mexico from the Spanish and then create a separate western empire that Burr would rule. These were just rumors.
4) These rumors, whether true or not, was seen and feared by his opponents.
5) When Burr led a group of armed followers down the Ohio R. in 1806, reports flowed to Washington that an attack on New Orleans was imminent.
6) As a result, Jefferson ordered Burr and his followers arrested as traitors; Burr was brought to Richmond for trial but was acquitted by Chief Justice Marshall because of the restrictions on the evidence the government could present and the definition of the charge that gave little room for other interpretations or actions other than an acquittal.

Question 3

War Hawks

Answer 3

Brinkley, pg. 213
By 1812 the majority of American’s on both the North and South borders wanted to engage in war with Britain. Therefor in the congress election of 1810, voters from these regions elected representatives from both the Republican and Federalist parties eager to start war in Britain, they became know as “war hawks”. Some of them were nationalist fired by territorial expansion (Henry Clay and John C. Calhoun had great roles in national politics for the next four decades) and others were trying to defended Republican values.

Question 4

Gabriel Prosser

Answer 4

Brinkley, pg. 190-191
Revivalism was widespread and many African Americans eagerly embraced the new religious fervor. A substantial group of black preachers emerged from revivals and became important figures in the slave community. Gabriel Prosser was the brother of an African American preacher. He devised an elaborate plan for a slave rebellion and attack on Richmond during a black revival meetings in Virginia.

Question 5

Steam Boat/ Robert Fulton

Answer 5

Brinkley pg. 193-194
The steam boat, first perfected by Robert Fulton and Robert R. Livingston, with their boat, the Clermont, in 1807, this faster vessel greatly enhanced trade and transportation within the nation

Question 6

Virtuous Citizenry

Answer 6

Brinkley pg. 186

1. Central to the Republican vision of America was the concept of a virtuous and enlightened citizenry.
2. According to the concept of Revolutionary Republicanism, the virtuous citizen is one who makes a commitment to resist and eradicate corruption, ignores monetary compensation, and ignores self-interest and individualism.
3. Jefferson himself called for a national “crusade against ignorance.”
4. Republicans therefore believed in the establishment of a nationwide system of public schools to create the educated electorate they believed a republic required.
5. All male citizens (the nation’s prospective voters) should, they argued, receive free education.

Question 7

Barbary Pirates

Answer 7

Brinkley pg. 202

1. For years the Barbary states of North Africa-Morocco, Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoli (now part of Libya)-had been demanding protection money from all nations whose ships sailed the Mediterranean.
2. Even Great Britain gave regular contributions to the pirates.
3. During the 1780s and 1790s the United States agreed to treaties providing for annual tribute to the Barbary states, but Jefferson was reluctant to continue this policy of appeasement.
4. In 1801, the pasha of Tripoli ordered the flagpole of the American consulate chopped down-a symbolic declaration of war.
5. Jefferson responded cautiously, building up the American fleet in the region over the next several years.
6. Finally in 1805, the United States reached an agreement with the pasha that ended American payments of tribute to Tripoli but required the United States to pay a substantial (and humiliating) ransom of $60,000 for the release of American prisoners seized by Barbary pirates.