Making War, Finding Peace: The United States and the World, circa 1776 and Beyond

On July 4, 1776, Congress declared that thirteen of Britain’s North American colonies were joining the powers of the earth as free and independent states.  But what, exactly, did it mean to join the powers of the earth?  What were the consequences for citizens of the new United States — and how did the implications differ for people on the union’s peripheries and margins, whether the margins were geographic or arose from distinctions of race, class, religion, indigeneity, and gender? 

In this year’s Joanne Goodman Lectures, New Hampshire University professor Eliga Gould will explore the international consequences of the Declaration of Independence, both within the United States and for the world that Congress proclaimed its intention to join.

October 6 – War

In the first lecture, Professor Gould will consider the American Revolution as a war with three parts:  a civil war that pitted Americans against Americans, a war for independence from Britain, and — following the entrance of France and Spain — a global war in Europe, the West Indies, and Asia.  Although Congress’s patriot supporters proved adept at the irregular tactics required by the first, the other two struggles required a regular army and navy, which had to be supported by taxes and public debts that American patriots objected to paying.

October 7 – Union

The second lecture will examine the various unions with which Americans hoped to secure the Revolution’s internal and external goals.  In the Articles of Confederation, adopted as the union’s first constitution in 1777, the states remained free to chart their own path on a range of crucial questions, including the abolition (or not) of slavery, who had the right to vote, and whether to end public support for religion.  But Congress also envisioned the United States as a continental union or empire that would someday include Canada, Britain’s other remaining North American colonies, and Indian country as far as the Mississippi River.

October 8 – Peace

In the Declaration’s conclusion, Congress promised that Americans would treat the British as they did the rest of mankind:  “enemies in war, in peace friends.”  In his final lecture, Professor Gould will start with the peace that Americans hoped to secure in 1776.  He will then discuss the Anglo-American Treaty of Peace and Independence that Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, and John Jay, signed in Paris on September 3, 1783.  As the history of the United States’ founding treaty shows, finding peace turned out to be at least as difficult and transformative as making war.

Visit the Department of History website for more information.