20B. "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" (1820) by Washington Irving

 

Aesthetics: Humor

• Irving’s description of Ichabod cracked me up, especially when they said he could be “mistaken him for the genius of famine descending upon the earth, or some scarecrow eloped from a cornfield” definitely pushing the fact that he’s a thin wisp of a man (Irving).
• a fascinating protagonist with a fun mish-mash of endearing and charming traits, like his psalmody singing which “resounded far above all the rest of the congregation”, alongside more concerning qualities, such as his adherence to the “golden maxim” of “Spare the rod and spoil the child” and his variety of strange features with his most vivid description being his nose that “looked like a weather-cock perched upon his spindle neck”(Irving).
• Gunpowder . . . was an old plow-horse, who had “outlived everything but his viciousness.” The horse was described in an unattractive manner, having a “rusty mane and tail (that) were tangled with burrs.” He also had an “ewe neck and a head like a hammer” (Irving).Overall, the horse was described in an unlovely [manner], having been worked into this shape. Gunpowder seems to be a parallel to Ichabod himself-a beaten down and rough man, not very attractive, but gets the job done. He was a sort of outcast and low-class. On the contrary, Brom Bone’s horse is much like his character. Bones is a proud and sneaky person. Like Ichabod and Gunpowder, Bonas’s horse called Daredevil is much like his owner. Daredevil was a proud steed, “full of mettle and mischief.” Bone’s horse possessed that mettle and mischief of “which no one but himself could manage.” Daredevil was also known to perform tricks “which kept the rider in constant risk of his neck.” This parallel between animal and owner was echoed in Bones as it was with Ichabod and gave way to a humorous imagining of each man in relation to his horse. 
• Despite the story having dark undertones, it’s oddly humorous and seems to have a narrow focus on heads and food. Why Irving chose these two topics to focus on and write over is a mystery to me, but the mere fact that those are the subjects most often discussed made the story funnier than it was probably meant to be
  
  SB:  It is meant to be funny.

Aesthetics: The Cultural Afterlife of The "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow"

• I have seen a stage production of this story before, but this is the first time I have ever read it. It is still just as interesting and captivating, but there seems to be a different emphasis. Ichabod is a teacher who enjoys reading stories and is rather imaginative, and the rest of the town of Sleepy Hollow is filled with superstitious people who are “given to all kinds of marvelous beliefs; are subject to trances and visions; and frequently see strange sights, and hear music and voices in the air” (6). One thing which surprises me quite a bit is the comical aspect of the story. The stage production and other times which I have heard the story always treated it like a short horror story which is rather serious, but this one ends with the townspeople thinking that Ichabod’s story of the Headless Horseman chasing after him to just be a prank pulled on him by Brom Bones.

Aesthetics: The Reader (and Brom) Know

• I wondered if Brom Bones is actually the headless horseman, and the legend continued because Brom Bones would run off any outsiders that came to their town. I believe the “head” was a pumpkin because of the descriptions of autumn in the beginning of the story.
• It is interesting that the story is told from a set of papers belonging to “the late Diedrich Knickerbocker” instead of an alive and present narrator. Maybe Irving did this to make the story appear more realistic or historical, as if he wanted the readers to believe that the story had actually been found among the belongings of a dead man who heard the tale from someone (a stranger during a business meeting) who also heard the tale. It is because of this that I think the story of Ichabod Crane is something Irving wanted the reader to question. For instance, the gentleman who originally told the story to Knickerbocker said that he “[didn’t] believe one half of it” after spouting a confusing syllogism. There is also the matter of Brome Bones who “always bursts into a hearty laugh” when the ending of the story is told, implying that he knows more about the story [than] others. If [Brom] does know what happened to Ichabod, it further supports the idea that the reader should not trust what Ichabod saw the night he fled Sleepy Hollow.
• The story has an ambiguous ending (kind of). We find out that the thing the headsman was carrying was a pumpkin rather than a head, and at the end of the story Brom laughs off any questions about the night Ichabod went missing. Both of these events point to Brom being the headless horsemen, since he didn’t want Katrina to pick Ichabod over him. However, some of the logistics of this questionable. Such as, how did Ichabod not recognize Brom? Or how did Brom catch up to Ichabod? Why would Brom feel the need to run Ichabod out of town when Katrina rebuffed him at the end of the party? I feel like those first two questions have easy answers; Ichabod didn’t recognize Brom because it was dark and even when Ichabod slowed the horseman didn’t catch up. Brom is also a skilled horseman who is originally from Sleepy Hollow, meaning that he knew shortcuts in the area. As for the question about Katrina, I feel like there is an answer to this; Brom is a jock. I know that is a modern term, but it fits Brom to a tee. All the characters in this story are stereotypes; Ichabod is the nerd, Brom is the jock, and Katrina is the love interest whose only character traits are how much she is coveted by the leading men. Brom’s characterization is that he wants to solve everything with brute force, trying to goad Ichabod into a brawl over Katrin. Even though Katrina rebuffed Ichabod, she had not officially chosen Brom, so Brom still felt threatened. Dressing up as the horseman and knocking Ichabod unconscious with a pumpkin lines up alarmingly well with his prior characterization. I don’t know if Irving wanted this ending to be ambiguous and unnerving or if he trusted his readers to figure the ending out, but these obvious clues point to the latter.
• Finally, something very hard to miss to me was the comparison of Daredevil performing tricks which would “keep the rider in risk of his neck.” The neck comment struck me as odd and felt like a clue at [Brom's] being the Headless Horseman, with it having no head. Also, If Daredevil were so connected with his owner, and able to do such tricks, it would be easy for them to attack Ichabod as he was attacked. Further clues towards the end of the story also indicated this being truth, with [Brom's] amusement at the disappearance of Ichabod
• Ichabod probably thought, since he was such a believer in the old tale, that it really was the Headless Horseman who assailed and chased him. He probably never even thought that it could be Brom Bones. Or perhaps he did but was so embarrassed by the prank and his dismissal from the heiress that he thought it best to never return.

Ideology: Brom as Hero?  

• I still find myself dumbfounded on the unrequited cruelty enacted upon Ichabod.

Ideology: Intellectual Life

• On the subject of stereotypes, I do want to point out that Ichabod subverts his stereotype a little when it comes to the treatment of his school children. He hits them, but only the ones that are not already afraid of him. Instead, he gave “a double portion on some little tough wrong-headed, broad- skirted Dutch urchin”. He’s a bully just as much as Brom is, but because he is lanky and nerdy and runs away from his problems in the end, he still fits the nerd stereotype. Brom also slightly subverts his stereotype by using trickery. He could never goad Ichabod into a direct fight, so he exploited Ichabod’s known fear of ghost stories to run him out of town. He still resorted to brute force when he chucked the pumpkin at Ichabod’s head and injured him, but he had to come up with a clever way to get to that point since Ichabod was too smart to fight him one-on-one. The only main character who doesn’t subvert their stereotype at all is Katrina. (But this was in the 1800’s so, like, who’s surprised?)
• It is made known from the beginning that Ichabod is a poor schoolteacher whom “to see striding along the profile of a hill on a windy day, with his clothes bagging and fluttering about him, one might have mistaken him for the genius of famine descending upon the earth, or some scarecrow eloped from a cornfield.["] However, it seems while he appeared to be helpful toward the residents, they kind of saw him as a bit a of a mooch without a real means of making money. As is stated, “might not be too onerous on the purses of his rustic patrons, who are apt to consider the costs of schooling a grievous burden, and schoolmasters as mere drones.” Moreover, Ichabod himself seemed to hold some prejudices himself as he is described as someone who “administered justice with discrimination rather than severity, taking the burden off the backs of the weak, and laying it on those of the strong.” Furthermore, he seemed to “prey” on the students of families who had “pretty sisters and housewives noted for the comforts of the cupboard.” Perhaps, it one of the prime reasons he went after Katrina. Maybe that is why he was “chased down” by the headless horseman.

Cultural Context: American Identity Narrative

Compare with:

• "Calathumps" (1825) at the University of Virginia. See: Richard Bernstein's 2003 biography Thomas Jefferson'; Mr. Jefferson's University: A History (1981) by Virginius Dabney; ,"Letter to Joseph Coolidge, Jr., 13 October 1825" by Thomas Jefferson; The Sage of Monticello (1981) by Dumas Malone.
• Charlotte Temple (1791) by Susanna Rowson (America's first best-selling novel)
• The Contrast (1790) by Royall Tyler (the first professionally produced play written by an American author)
• The Lion of the West (1831)by James K. Paulding
• Life of George Washington (1809) by Mason Locke Weems
• Biographical Memoir of Daniel Boone (1834) by Timothy Flint
• Davy Crockett's Own Story (1833) by Davy Crockett
• "The Turn Out" (1833) by Augustus Baldwin Longstreet
• In 1839, the University of Virginia's faculty chairman "was assaulted by two students and horsewhipped while at least one hundred other students looked on and did nothing to stop the outrage" (Dabeny 9).
• In 1841, another faculty chairman attempt to stop a masked student from firing shots on the Lawn in front of his residence, and ths student shot and killed him (Dabney, 9).

Notes and Considerations

Above: "Boundless" (2008) by Shelly Niro

We don't always get through everything I hope to in class discussions, so moving forward, I hope to use this space to add important notes and questions for consideration.

Thoreau, Walden

1. Consider the ways that Thoreau’s discourse echoes Marxism and Romanticism as competing paradigms for describing "progress." While Thoreau’s criticisms of consumerism and the extravagant lifestyles of the wealthy seem aligned with Marxist critiques of capitalism, Marxists are advocates for sharing wealth, not shunning it. Marxists believe that capitalism represented a kind of progress that would be surpassed by a subsequent stage of progress: communism. On the other hand, there is an element of Romanticism in Thoreau’s references to the inhabitants of Tierra del Fuego, “naked savages” who are heartier than more civilized explorers, whom Enlightenment thinkers might consider to be more advanced.

2. Walden may be read as a forceful response to anyone who argues that it is not practically possible to just check out from society and live independently. Thoreau suggests that we think we need much more than we really do.

3. Consider: Do Harding Davis, Alcott, Whitman, and Douglass agree with Thoreau that the mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation? To the extent that they do, do they agree on who is responsible for this?

4. Consider: Is Thoreau's ultimate goal to lead a simple life or is it to elevate "mankind"? Or does he think that the first can lead to the second?

Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass

1. Douglass’s matter-of-fact tone, his literary references, and his eloquence helps depict him as a serious intellectual and counters racist notions that Blacks were inferior to Whites.
Example one: “[Mr. Gore] raised his musket to [Demby’s] face, taking deadly aim at his standing victim, and in an instant poor Demby was no more. His mangled body sank out of sight, and the blood and brains marked the water where he had stood.”
Example two: Sails on the Chesapeake Bay

Consider: The following passage is one of the most often excerpted passages from Douglass's Narrative, partially because it makes use of several classical literary devices, such as apostrophe, antithesis, and personification.

I was sometimes prompted to take my life, and that of Covey, but was prevented by a combination of hope and fear. My sufferings on this plantation seem now like a dream rather than a stern reality.

Our house stood within a few rods of the Chesapeake Bay, whose broad bosom was ever white with sails from every quarter of the habitable globe. Those beautiful vessels, robed in purest white, so delightful to the eye of freemen, were to me so many shrouded ghosts, to terrify and torment me with thoughts of my wretched condition. I have often, in the deep stillness of a summer’s Sabbath, stood all alone upon the lofty banks of that noble bay, and traced, with saddened heart and tearful eye, the countless number of sails moving off to the mighty ocean. The sight of these always affected me powerfully. My thoughts would compel utterance; and there, with no audience but the Almighty, I would pour out my soul’s complaint, in my rude way, with an apostrophe to the moving multitude of ships:—

“You are loosed from your moorings, and are free; I am fast in my chains, and am a slave! You move merrily before the gentle gale, and I sadly before the bloody whip! You are freedom’s swift-winged angels, that fly round the world; I am confined in bands of iron!

2. Consider: Can Douglass’s experiences learning to read (knowledge empowered him and it was painful for him) be applied to high school and college students and American society more broadly?

3. Consider: Is it fair to criticize Douglass’s account of his struggle with Covey for suggesting that slaves who didn't fight back were to some extent responsible for their own suffering?

4. Consider: While in his "1845 Narrative, [Douglass] presented himself as relatively isolated from his fellow slaves, describing his fight with Covey as a heroic instance of individual rebellion; in the 1855 My Bondage and My Freedom, he depicted the fight as involving several other African Americans who came to his assistance" (The Norton Anthology of American Literature, Shorter Ninth Edition: Beginnings to 1865, 999).

5. Consider: Does Douglass’s Narrative marginalize or minimize the struggles and the strength of Black women?

7. Consider: To what extent can Douglass’s Narrative be read as a condemnation of Christianity and to what extent can be read as a condemnation of the Christianity of the slave owners?

6. Consider: Should reading gruesome passage from slave narratives be encouraged in high school? Should it be required in college?

Melville, Moby-Dick

Chs. 15-18

1. Ishmael’s efforts to talk Queequeg out of his fasting practices raise interesting questions about the differences between cultural imperialism, cosmopolitanism, multiculturalism, and cultural protectionism.

2. Peleg and Bildad’s eagerness to hire Queequeg after he demonstrates his prowess as a harpooner raises questions about the relationship between commercial interests and religious and cultural concerns; Mrs. Husssey’s response when she thought Queequeg had killed himself suggests that her primary concern is profit.

Consider: If New Bedford is a model of cosmopolitanism, what role does capitalism play in its culture?

Chs. 19-21

1. Elijah is a Biblical prophet who predicted the destruction of Ahab, who was an unfaithful King, who worshipped Baal. Jezebel was Ahab’s wife.
2. Elijah’s prophesies raise questions about the role of human agency in determining the shape our lives take.

Chs. 22-28

1. Elijah's prophecies and The Pequod's "blind plunge" into the lone Atlantic raise questions about fate, predestination, and human agency.

2. Consider: can Ishmael's defense of the whaling industry be read as a defense of the working class and as America as a democratic nation that depends on ordinary citizens to shape its political future?

3. To be continued ...

Chs. 29-32

1. Consider: How might thinking of Ahab as an amputee and trauma victim affect reader responses to his thoughts and behavior?

2. The Cetology chapter provides yet another example of the great variety of writing styles on display in the novel, appearing as it does among other chapters that have passages that read like poetry, others like stage plays or sermons, others narrated by an omnisicent voice, and others that read like dramatic monologues. This variety may be considered an embodiment of a fractured modern world in which the Protestant reformation, democratic revolutions, and secular humanism of the Enlightenment have ruptured once relatively stable religious, political, and intellectual structures (compare with cubist paintings like "Les Demoiselles d'Avignon" [1907], which shattered conventional viewer expectations of visual representation). 

3. Despite the extensive knowledge the Cetology chapter presents about whales, the narrator concludes that seeking understand these animals who live behind an "inpenetrable veil" in "unfathomable water" is ultimately futile. The human capacity for understanding is limited; the promise of the Enlightenment may be overstated.

4. Ishmael's decision to classify whales as "fish," though scientist have, in fact, categorized them as mammals, as Ishmael is aware, may demonstrate his skepticism about the classification schemes of scientific experts (and, perhaps, the Enlightenment project, more broadly speaking).

Chs. 33-36

1. The bliss Ishmael experiences on the masthead is comparable to the freedom Thoreau described when he went into the woods and removed himself from the demands of capitalist, consumer society. Both urges are rooted in Romantic criticism of "society" as a source of conformity and Romantic celebrations of nature of a source of strength and rejuvenation.

2.  The crew's enthusiastic response to Ahab's recruitment speech (Ch. 36) suggests that democracies may be vulnerable to demagogues who enlist them in a campaign to attack the "Other." Compare with Napoleon's emergence as a dictator in the aftermath of the French Revolution.

Chs. 37-39

1. The "Iron Crown of Lombardy," which Ahab describes himself as wearing (Ch. 37), was also worn by Napoleon, and it was said to contain a nail from the crosson which Jesus was crucified. The reference links Ahab to both of these figures and challenges readers to reflect on whether they seem him as a tyrant, a martyr, or a redeemer.

2. Chapter 37, 38, and 39, offer a variety of attitudes towards fate and human agency. Ahab is determined to be the master of his own fate. Starbuck is torn between the professional loyalty he owes to his commander and the duty he feels to his own conscience and the stated (commercial) mission of the Pequod. Stubb cheerfully accepts the fact that his fate is predetermined.

Chs. 46-49
1. In Chapter 44, we read a description of Ahab suffering from “trances of Torment,” which suggests that he may be suffering from a mental illness (obsessive thoughts). In Chapter 46, Ahab demonstrates a keen awareness of how his behavior might be perceived as unhealthy by the sailors. He may be unwell, but he is not completely detached from reality and self-awareness. He understands how he is seen by others.
2. In Chapter 47, Melville turns a description of the mat-making process into a reflection on fate, human agency, and predestination, where the warp represents God’s will/predestination; the sword represents chance; and the shuttle represents free will. All work together. All play a role. This chapter also includes passages that are richly poetic.
3. Consider: Does describing Fedallah's crew as "tiger yellow creature" and comparing them to "infidel sharks . . .with "eyes of red murder" undermine the kind of cosmopolitan tolerance that is celebrated in other parts of the novel?

Stowe, Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852)

1. Given the way Uncle Tom’s Cabin became a successful (and racist?) franchise, consider: to what extent can we hold the original text and its author accountable for the text’s subsequent cultural life? Are the seeds of the novel’s troubling cultural afterlife embedded in the text?

2. James Baldwin hated Uncle Tom’s Cabin because of its sentimental and unrealistic portrait of the character of Uncle Tom, which he considered to be both emasculating and dehumanizing. Jane Tompkins (Sensational Designs, 1985) celebrated it because it offered a radical political alternative to a patriarchal status quo. Frederick Douglass praised the novel for igniting outrage against the institution of slavery. Andrew Delbanco (The War Before the War, 2018) says that Stowe is a "proto-Marxist" because although Stowe intended her novel to to be about how “conscience," in fact, "material interests" repeatedly prevail in the novel. 

3.  Don’t miss the many examples of Stowe’s sarcasm in Chapter Twelve (and elsewhere).

4. Consider the limitations of textual power to constrain interpretation in the context of the discussion of the Biblical support for slavery on La Belle Riviere.

Jacobs, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (1861)

Chs. 1, 7 10
1. The Dictionary of North Carolina Biography entry on Dr. James Norcom, Sr., the man referred to as “Dr. Flint” in Jacobs’s narrative, is chilling in the way it describes Norcom as an upstanding, accomplished and otherwise normal member of society (his career as a slaver is tacked on at the end).

2. Jacobs’s book is the first slave narrative authored by a Black woman in America.

3. In time, scholars came to believe that Jacobs's book was a novel. Some believed it was actually authored by Lydia Maria Child, the well-known white writer who helped Jacobs edit and publish it. In the 1980s, research done by historian Jean Fagin Yellin established "that this was an autobiographical narrative and not a novel" and as a result, the book enjoyed "belated acclaim"

Chs. 14, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21

1. On one hand, the slave is treated as animal property: a brute resource to be exploited for profit. Yet, on the other hand, after Linda escapes, Dr. Flint's obsession with finding and capturing her surpasses the bounds of commercial or market rationality: ". . . Dr. Flint cared even more for revenge than he did for money."

2. Dr. Flint's deranged protestations about the way Linda treats him suggest that he believes that his treatment of her was truly admirable. The human capacity for flatttering self-delusion is staggering.

3. Flint's plans to build an isolated cabin where he could rape Linda without his wife being able to catch him in the act remind us that the institution of slavery did not just deprive slaves of wages for their labor and treat human beings a commodities to be exploited. It facilitated mass rape of black women by white men.

4. Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl helps illustrate how slavery's abuses extended far beyond whipping and other forms of corporal punishment.

5. Jacobs's feelings of gratitude to the slaveholding woman who helps her challenges readers with a worldview that allows both for exteme villainy and extraordinary moral complexity. 

1517: Protestant Reformation

“Luther” (1520) by Lucas Cranach the Elder

Giovanni Medici, the second son of Lorenzo, the most powerful person in Florence, Italy becomes a cardinal at age 14 in 1489, and then Pope Leo X in 1513.

He tells the rich that God will forgive their sins if they give money to make St. Peter’s Basilica the most impressive church in the world.

A 34-year-old priest born in Eislaben, Germany protests that no one—not even the Pope— should tell the rich they can buy God’s forgiveness.

In 1517, Martin Luther nails his complaints about Leo X’s policies—95 Theses—to a church door in Wittenburg and divides the Christian World.

Leo X and King Carlos V of Spain tell Luther to take it back, but he won’t. So Leo X kicks Luther out of the church.

Many people who agree with Luther’s complaints quit the church.

Others quit because they don’t want the Pope telling them what to do.

Those who quit the church are called Protestants.

1609: Galileo

"Ladder to the Moon" (1958) by Georgia O'Keefe, at the Whitney Museum of American Art

Galileo Galilei, a 45-year old math professor at the University of Padua creates a telescope many times more powerful than any telescope ever built before.

In 1609, Galileo uses his telescope to observe the night sky.

Galileo’s telescope helps him discover how wrong many common beliefs about space are.

Many believe the Moon and sun have smooth surfaces which shows the absolute difference between the perfect and unchanging heavenly bodies and a corrupt Earth, whose surface is bumpy and irregular. But Galileo observes that the surface of the moon is not smooth at all. It is as mountainous, rough, and uneven as the Earth’s surface.

Galileo later discovers sunspots that show the Sun is not perfect either.

Galileo also discovers four moons revolving around Jupiter, which proves there is more than one center of motion in the Universe.

And he observes that Venus cycles through various phases, like the Moon does. This proves that Venus revolves around the Sun and also confirms the theories of Copernicus.

Some leaders of the Catholic Church ask Galileo about passages in the Bible like Psalm 104:5, which says “God set the Earth on its foundations; it can never be moved.”

They accuse Galileo of not believing in the Bible.

Galileo says people should read the Bible to learn about faith and morals, not science.

Pope Urban VIII makes Galileo promise to “abandon completely... the opinion that the sun stands still at the center of the world and the earth moves, and henceforth not to hold, teach, or defend it in any way whatever, either orally or in writing.”

“… in discussions of [Nature] we ought to begin not from the authority of scriptural passages but from sense-experiences and necessary demonstrations.”
--Letter from Galileo to the Grand Duchess Christina of Tuscany, 1615

1789: French Revolution

“Prisionero Encadenado” (ca. 1812) by Francisco Goya

The French spend a lot of money helping the Americans fight the British in the War of American Independence.

But when King Louis XVI tries to raise taxes in 1789, the rich resist.

So for the first time in 175 years, the King calls for a political convention that will include common people.

When the Convention meets at the King’s palace in Versailles, the commoners don’t cooperate with the King or the nobles. In June, they give up on the Convention entirely and declare themselves to be an independent Assembly. Soon afterwards, frustration with the government leads to violence in the streets of Paris.

The commoners gather outside the Bastille, the prison where the King sends those who displease him.

On July 14, 1789, an armed crowd attacks the Bastille, and the French Revolution begins.

The crowd demands the release of the Bastille’s seven prisoners.

When they are freed, the head of the Bastille surrenders, and the crowd kills him.

1793: Reign of Terror and Napoleon

“Louis XVI on a Visit to Medellin” (1990) by Francisco Botero

In 1792, France becomes a Republic.

The government closes the churches, makes money by raising taxes on the rich and selling property owned by the church and by wealthy families that leave the country.

The Republic helps the poor and disabled and makes education free and required for all.

The leaders of the Republic also unleash a wave of horrific violence.

They force all unmarried men between the ages of 18 and 25 to join the army.

They arrest, try, and behead thousands who are accused of opposing the Revolution.

Many more die in prison or are killed without any kind of trial.

When the King tries to escape France, he is captured and returned to Paris.

In 1793, Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette are beheaded.

Both are beheaded in the Place de la Revolution, now the Place de la Concorde at the eastern end of the Champs Elysee: Louis on January 21st and Marie on October 16th.

In 1793, the leaders of the French Revolution begin to turn on each other and a reign of terror begins.

On July 17, Jean-Paul Marat is assassinated.

On September 5, Maximilien Robespierre’s government makes “terror the order of the day."

On July 27, 1794, Robespierre is arrested and beheaded.

Many of the Republic’s most progressive laws are overturned.

After his soldiers defeat rebels who want France to have a king in 1795, Napoleon becomes head of the Army.

Since the start of the Revolution, other nations have been planning to invade the young Republic to rescue the King, to discourage rebellions in their own countries, and to take advantage of the chaos to increase their power.

At the same time, France’s new leaders want to spread their revolutionary ideas, to bring down kings in other countries, to increase their own power, and to unite the French in wars against external enemies.

In 1799, Napoleon abolishes the government, says the Revolution is over, and makes himself leader of France. He needs money for his wars.

In 1803, Napoleon sells all French claims in North America and the size of the United States doubles.

1801: Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson, Democrat-Republican from Virginia, beat President John Adams by 23% of the popular vote in the election of 1800 (Adams would have won if votes in slave states had not been given more weight because of the slaves they owned). In 1804, Jefferson beat Federalist Charles Pinckney of South Carolina by 45% of the popular vote.

Gave Napoleon $15 Million for "Louisiana"

Napoleon needed money for France's war with Great Britian, and Jefferson gave it to him for the territory that would become Louisiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, South Dakota, much of Minnesota, North Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, and some of Texas and New Mexico. Jefferson didn't give any money to the many Native American nations whose homelands were in these territories.

Tried Suspending All Trade with Europe

England's leaders believed that to defeat Napoleon, they had to keep Americans from trading with France. Americans were making a lot of money from this trade and did not want to stop. The English also desperately needed sailors for its warships. At the time, half of the sailors on American merchant ships were English. Many of them had deserted the British navy. When England started stopping American ships to serve in the British navy, Jefferson decided to stop all trade with Europe. He later changed his mind because American businesses were losing too much money and decided to let American ships trade with every country in Europe except England and France.

Made It Illegal to Buy Slaves from other Countries